AirTran flights returned last week to Expedia.com after
a year-long absence.
The four-year
partnership between Expedia and AirTran will boost the online
agency's roster of low-cost carriers, which now includes AirTran,
US Airways, Frontier and ATA.
The pact provides
that AirTran's "full range of products and services, including all
air fares, schedules and inventory," will be available to Expedia
customers, the companies stated. Expedia also will be able to
assemble vacation packages using AirTran flights.
In October 2005,
AirTran announced that it was withdrawing from the Worldspan GDS,
triggering the break in relations between Expedia and the airline.
In 2005, Worldspan was Expedia's sole GDS provider.
Sabre and
Worldspan, Expedia's current GDS providers, now both have
participation agreements with AirTran. But without a direct
Expedia-AirTran pact, the airline's inventory was missing from the
online agency's flight displays.
In a separate
development, Worldspan signed a five-year distribution agreement
with Alaska Airlines that makes the airline a participant in the
GDS vendor's Super Access Product.
Worldspan agents
who participate in that program can access the airline's published
fares and inventory, including content available in other GDSs, on
Alaska's Web site and on third-party sites. Schedules and fares
from Alaska and sister carrier Horizon also will be available to
business travelers who make online bookings through Worldspan Trip
Manager XE and other Worldspan-connected Web sites.
Alaska upped its
participation in Worldspan, moving to the Airline Source level, the
highest connectivity level the GDS offers.
To
contact reporter Dennis Schaal, send e-mail to [email protected].