GALILEO Travelport Zambia has become the first global distribution system (GDS) to complete a new long-term global full content agreement with British Airways aimed at providing integrated real-time availability and fares on all BA flights worldwide.

The full content agreement would assure customers of complete content and fares parity with all British Airways’ global sales and distribution channels including BA.com and promotional fares offered from time to time by the airline.
The new agreement took effect on November 1, 2009 and would secure global full content for all Worldspan, Galileo and Apollo customers worldwide, for a period of three and half years until March 31, 2013.

Announcing the development yesterday, Galileo Travelport Zambia managing director Terry-Anne Pickard said: “As a result of this new deal all Travelport customers globally are assured of full, integrated, real-time availability and fares on all BA flights worldwide within all Travelport GDS booking platforms. Moreover, you are assured of complete content and fares parity with all British Airways’ global sales and distribution channels including BA.com and promotional fares offered from time to time by the airline.”

She said the development would result in the delivery of mutually beneficial commercial solutions to all the companies’ customers worldwide.

“We are confident that Travelport’s new agreement with British Airways will give our customers, especially in the UK and Ireland, tremendous advantage in terms of longer-term business planning security and greater competitiveness in today’s tough economic conditions,” said Pickard. “Furthermore, we are delighted to advise that as part of our new agreement with BA, Travelport and British Airways will also work together in the coming months on providing Worldspan and Galileo-connected travel agents with the ability to book extras such as seating.”

Travelport is the world’s largest computerised global distribution services provider to which more than 45,000 travel agencies worldwide are connected.
In Zambia, more than 50 local travel agents use the Travelport reservations system to book not only airline seats but hotel accomodation and car hires services, among others.