Travelport and TravelSky Sign Unprecedented Joint Development Agreement to Develop Advanced Airline Technology

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Oct 19, 2011, 07:00 ET

ATLANTA and BEIJING, Oct. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Travelport, the business services provider to the global travel industry, and TravelSky Technology Limited, the leading provider of information technology solutions for China's air travel and tourism industries, today announce an unprecedented joint product development agreement focused on advanced Passenger Service Systems technology for airlines worldwide. The first project under this agreement is a collaboration on a new and innovative Master Seat Maps module – which applies marketing and customer value to the physical seat characteristics of a given aircraft.

Teams expert in airline hosting and related technologies will work in the United States and China, enhancing the 15 year partner and customer relationship between the two companies.

"TravelSky has never before signed a development agreement of this magnitude with any GDS or airline vendor and as such it is a major milestone. It is a significant evolution in our longstanding technology partnership with Travelport, and it comes at a critical time for airlines worldwide," said executive vice president Huang Yuan Chang of TravelSky. "By coupling the resources, expertise and global presence of our companies, we will be able to accelerate the delivery of highly relevant solutions like this for our customers in China and throughout the world. We are optimistic that this step forward with Travelport will lead to additional Passenger Service Systems co-development in the future."

"Airlines are constantly looking for more effective IT solutions to meet new operational, customer service and industry requirements," said Derek Sharp, president and managing director of Travelport's Airline IT Solutions group. "Travelport and TravelSky are committed to developing this first module for our global airline clients to demonstrate how our technology solutions will allow airlines to evolve their business models going forward to compete more effectively in their respective regions around the globe."

Note to Editors:

Airline passenger services systems, composed of reservations, flight inventory and departure control systems are constantly evolving to meet the growing needs of airlines and passengers globally. The agreement between Travelport and TravelSky comes on the heels of Travelport's study by Forrester Consulting among airline business and IT decision-makers to assess how airlines are adapting to the changing IT and PSS technology landscape. The study confirmed that airlines are seeking agile providers and improvement-related applications, with passenger service systems leading outsourcing demand. Results of the study, entitled "Trends and Spending Projections: Addressing the urgency amongst airlines to choose reliable and relevant technologies," is available at: http://www.travelport.com/customer_community.aspx.

About TravelSky Technology Limited
TravelSky Technology Limited, a unit of China TravelSky Holding Company, develops leading edge applications and services that enable electronic transactions and the management of travel-related information for companies across the travel industry. TravelSky operates passenger services systems for air carriers in China, and maintains the global distribution system (GDS) for China's travel agencies, processing more than 200 million passengers annually. Customers include 30 domestic airlines, approximately 200 regional and international airlines, 147 domestic airports and 7,000 ticket agents. Services reach into 300 cities in China, 80 international cities and a growing range of social networking sites. TravelSky is headquartered in Beijing and has more than 4000 employees.

For further information, please visit: www.travelsky.net.

About Travelport (www.travelport.com)
Travelport is a broad-based business services company and a leading provider of critical transaction processing solutions to companies operating in the global travel industry.

With a presence in 160 countries, approximately 3,500 employees and reported 2010 revenues of $2.3 billion, Travelport is comprised of the global distribution system (GDS) business, which includes the Galileo and Worldspan brands and its Airline IT Solutions business, which hosts mission critical applications and provides business and data analysis solutions for major airlines.

Travelport also owns approximately 48% of Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW), a leading global online travel company. Travelport is a private company owned by The Blackstone Group, One Equity Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures, and Travelport management.

Follow Travelport on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Travelport.

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Jill Brenner, Corporate Communications Director, Americas
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Kate Aldridge, Corporate Communications Director, EMEA and APAC
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SOURCE Travelport