Ethiopian, Travelport renew partnership

By Kaleyesus Bekele

Ethiopian Airlines and Travelport International Operations Ltd today signed an agreement that would enable them to extend their partnership for the coming five years.

Travelport is a UK based company that provides airlines with passenger booking and air ticket sales system. Airlines use Global Distribution System (GDS) to work with ticket agents in managing passenger bookings and ticket sales. Ethiopian Airlines has been using Travelport’s GDS system for the past 25 years.

At the signing ceremony held at the headquarters of Ethiopian Airlines Mark Meehan, Global Vice President & Managing Director, Global Operations at Travelport said Ethiopian Airlines has been a successful partner of Travelport for the last 25 years. “Ethiopia is an important market for Travelport. Ethiopian is our reliable customer, which is investing for the future on its fleet and network,” Meehan said. “We are happy to work with the successful airline. It is an exciting time for us,” he added.

Travelport held an event in Addis Ababa last month in which more than 90 ticket agents participated. 

After signing the agreement, Mesfin Tasew, Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO, said that Ethiopian partnered with Travelport more than two decades ago. “We have been using their global distribution system. We deployed their network solution. We automated our ticket sales by Travelport system. We trained ticket agents. Our ticket agents use Travelport’s system to book passengers and sell tickets,” Mesfin said.

According to Mesfin, Travelport’s distribution system enabled Ethiopian to minimize its distribution cost.  “Ethiopian has been registering a remarkable and consistent growth in the past 20 years and Travelport is a trusted partner that helped us achieve our strategic growth. Today we are happy to renew our partnership,” he said.

An airline official told Origins Business that Ethiopian has been able to save millions of dollars every year by using the Travelport’s GDS.