Category Archives: Technology

Within the framework of Kuwait Airways’ continuous endeavours to provide the best services and solutions to its valued customers, the company announced the launching of the Electronic Boarding Passes, as a new service enabling customers to check-in and complete their travel procedures on Kuwait Airways’ website or the electronic application for more than 22 selected stations, for those arriving to Kuwait. Speaking on the launch of this new service, the Chairman of Kuwait Airways, Captain Ali Al-Dukhan stated, “Kuwait Airways is committed to its tireless efforts to introduce the latest services that will enable passengers to save time and facilitate the completion of their travel procedures. The launch of the Electronic Boarding Pass is part of the Blue Bird’s efforts to implement its strategic objectives towards digital transformation, which is in line with the best standards and solutions in the aviation sector, and to provide distinguished services for passengers travelling on the National Carrier of the State of Kuwait. This is in addition to the recent launch of various other new services during the National Holidays, such as the Home Check-in Service and the Limousine Service for Royal and First Class passengers”. Al-Dukhan added, “Customers can check-in through the Kuwait Airways website or the electronic application, select their preferred seat, complete their reservation procedures, and then obtain the barcode for their flight. Passengers without any luggage can proceed directly to the passport control, show the barcode and head to the boarding gate, without the requirements of proceeding to the check-in counter to check their baggage allowance.” Al-Dukhan continued by saying, “As for passengers carrying baggage, they can complete their travel procedures either through the self-baggage weighing device according to its …

Sabre Corporation and Al Manal Travel, Tours and Cargo, Salalah, the Sultanate of Oman, have announced an exclusive multiyear technology agreement to help the agency advance its operations and provide travellers with personalized travel experiences. Al Manal Travel has been working with Sabre for more than two decades, delivering comprehensive travel solutions and offerings – including travel packages, cruises and adventurous holidays. Al Manal Travel will be exclusively using Sabre Red 360 to deliver highly personalised offers for its customers, by deploying intelligent and consultative services and features. Furthermore, it will benefit from Sabre’s Automated Exchanges and refunds to drive operational efficiency. “For more than 20 years, Sabre has been the trusted and innovative technology partner that helped us deliver comprehensive travel services and customized products in the Omani market,” said Ahmad Mustafa, General Manager, Al Manal Travel, Tours and Cargo. “We choose Sabre for its expertise, dedicated team, and innovative technology, which will help us to keep our business agile and advance the services that we offer our travellers.” Al Manal Travel will continue to have access to Sabre’s marketplace of more than 400 airlines, 750,000 hotel properties, and hundreds of tour operators, rail, car and cruise providers, to sell customized travel packages from suppliers around the world. “We are thrilled to extend our longstanding relationship with Al Manal Travel as its preferred GDS partner,” said John Matthew, Oman Country Manager, Sabre Travel Network Middle East. “We are constantly evolving our technology, enabling us to offer agencies faster innovation and more flexible solutions infused with data-driven insights. This helps agencies to differentiate their offerings and create compelling travel shopping experiences.”

Sabre Corporation and American Airlines announced the availability of American’s NDC offers through Sabre’s global distribution system (GDS). Starting on April 3, Sabre-connected travel buyers, agencies and developer partners will be able to shop, book, and service American’s NDC content, including paid seats, through Sabre’s Offer and Order APIs, the agency point-of-sale tool, Sabre Red 360, and the online booking tool, GetThere. “We are committed to providing our customers with a modern, seamless retailing experience across all channels,” said Thomas Rajan, vice president, global sales at American Airlines. “Through Sabre’s network of travel retailers, we’ll be able to provide our enhanced, rich NDC content to travelers worldwide. This will open new business opportunities to American as well as our travel retail partners, and deliver a better, more tailored experience to the customers we all serve.” Travel buyers connected to the Sabre GDS will be able to choose enhanced offers from American such as the Main Select and Flagship Business Plus fares, ancillary products and the lowest fares available in these channels. They will also have access to more descriptive information on American’s flight offers as well as seat selection enabled in the booking path. “We are excited to reach this milestone with American Airlines and look forward to our ongoing collaboration to provide travel buyers with the offers and services their travelers want,” said Kathy Morgan, Vice President, NDC and Airline Supply, Sabre Travel Solutions. “While it is still early days for NDC bookings, making this rich NDC content from the world’s largest airline available in Sabre channels is an important step towards the maturing and scaling of NDC distribution.”

Travelport announced a $200 million investment from the company’s owners, Siris Capital Group and Elliott Management. Following a strong first quarter performance, including best-in-class tech achievements and the acquisition of Deem, the new injection of capital will allow the company to continue executing against its aggressive growth strategy. “The $200 million investment from our owners, Siris Capital Group and Elliott Management, reflect their confidence in Travelport and the continued recovery of the travel industry,” said Greg Webb, CEO of Travelport. “The main advantage of private equity ownership is agility, which is crucial in a rapidly changing environment. This investment will allow Travelport to further advance its tech innovations, while fueling the company’s momentum.” This month alone, Travelport: Announced the game-changing acquisition of Deem, a leading corporate travel management platform, in order to fulfill a growing need for a tight, fully-integrated tool that provides access to all multi-source content, including NDC. Launched Smartpoint Cloud, delivering a more intuitive and efficient way for travel agents to sell and service travel, all while increasing sales of higher-value services for suppliers. Became the first GDS to offer a complete solution for American Airlines’ NDC content. The company’s next-generation platform, Travelport+, has had NDC content from American Airlines live for nearly a year now; and as of mid-March, the content is live across the entire Travelport portfolio. The $200 million investment, along with a recent refinancing that received the support of 100% of Travelport’s First Lien Lenders and materially lowered the company’s cash interest expense, provides Travelport with significant liquidity while demonstrating investors’ strong belief in the company’s bright future.

Wego brings you the best travel tips to plan your family holidays. Travelling is undoubtedly one of the most enjoyable experiences one can have, allowing us to explore new places, cultures, and cuisines. However, planning a trip can be a daunting and exhausting task, especially when it comes to family vacations. These responsibilities easily double when you are traveling as a family. From selecting the perfect destination to comfortable accommodations and activities for everyone; it is not an easy task, but with Wego, planning family trips feels less stressful. Users can search for the top family-friendly destinations under the “Trip Ideas” section of Wego. The travel advisory feature that Wego provides also allows travelers to get all the necessary information on the places they wanted to visit, including COVID requirements and weather conditions. In addition, the platform offers the best flights based on families’ budget and schedule, allowing them to compare the airfares, dates and availability of flights from the UAE, and assess a range of family-friendly airlines listed on Wego. One of the top airlines that offer many services for families is Emirates airlines. It provides complimentary prams and family check-in desks at Dubai International Airport, along with dedicated ground staff and cabin crew trained to assist families. Etihad also offers perks for those traveling with children. This includes the Little VIP campaign, which provides families with dedicated check-in desks and priority boarding, along with complimentary bassinet seats and an additional baggage allowance that includes a 10 kg checked bag and a 5 kg cabin bag. Be it Qatar Airways, Lufthansa, Gulf Air, Saudia, Qantas and other family-friendly air carriers, Wego helps easily book the right type of trip …

Travelport and Saudia Airlines announced that they have signed a new multi-year distribution agreement. Arved von zur Muehlen, Chief Commercial Officer at Saudia Airlines, commented, “We are pleased with the recent multi-year extension of our distribution agreement with Travelport. The company’s new  Travelport+ retailing platform will be a valuable asset in helping us expand our reach among the travel agency community while Saudi Arabia continues to develop as a top destination for tourism. Travel distribution is under rapid transformation and we are working to widen our network and product offerings. Travelport is an established partner to support Saudia’s growth and product differentiation and personalization strategy.” As part of the agreement, Travelport will continue to provide travel agencies around the world real-time access to Saudia Airlines’ wide selection of travel content, products and services. Travelport will also continue to collaborate closely with Saudia Airlines to execute Travelport Rich Content and Branding initiatives, streamlining service procedures, and delivering a world-class, modern travel retail experience. David Gomes, Head of Commercial, Air Partners EMEA at Travelport, said, “We are delighted to extend our decades-long partnership with Saudia Airlines. This deal is a testament to the strong relationship between Saudia Airlines and Travelport. With our Travelport+ platform, we are committed to work closely with partners like Saudia Airlines to deliver a superior, modern travel retailing experience with a wider range of choice and richer content for our customers.”    

Travelport announced the launch of Smartpoint Cloud on Travelport+. As the only modern retailing platform built for agencies, Travelport+ will now deliver a more intuitive and efficient way for travel agents to sell and service travel, all while increasing sales of higher-value services for suppliers. Through Smartpoint Cloud, agents will be able to easily search, filter, find and create tailored packages to suit every customer type, including fully customizable hotel and flight search options and NDC offers. “Travel agents are the true retailers of our industry, and launching Smartpoint Cloud on Travelport+ will help our partners to deliver more value to both their clients and suppliers,” said Tom Kershaw, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Travelport. “Like any good tech innovation, these tools are simple to use and tackle key challenges faced by the travel advisor community. Smartpoint Cloud will further personalize agent workflows, help drive more revenue, and most importantly, impress customers.” Built with the insight that agencies need to train and onboard new agents, the graphical user interface (GUI) on Travelport+ is designed to provide a more user-friendly, simpler experience that speeds up agent workflow. Agents who prefer to work in a traditional (cryptic) interface have the flexibility to do so. Smartpoint Cloud’s retailing storefront helps agents understand offers and make more informed decisions within the robust offerings of air, hotel, car, and rail content available. It provides better criteria to allow easy comparisons from any source, including both NDC and traditional air content side by side. Smartpoint Cloud also helps provide more transparency on offers, enabling agents to have the relevant information for comparison shopping at their fingertips. Additionally, the newly expanded Trip Quote capabilities integrate both …

BCD Travel has expanded its agreement with Amadeus as the forward-looking travel management company (TMC) refines its global technology approach to best capitalize on opportunities in the new era of business travel. Under the new agreement, the two organizations will partner on multiple initiatives, each designed to provide BCD Travel with a platform for growth, productivity improvement, and technological innovation. BCD Travel will leverage Amadeus’ technology, travel expertise, content, and global footprint to support its operations in additional markets. This includes incorporating Amadeus’ industry leading NDC content and end-to-end workflow capabilities. For Amadeus, the new agreement also means increased business with a leading global TMC, including opportunities in the UK, Ireland, and North America. “BCD is delighted to be expanding our long-standing partnership with Amadeus,” said BCD Travel President and CEO John Snyder. “This agreement allows us to engage on deeper technology collaboration and deliver high value services through the Amadeus Travel Platform. The expansion of our partnership will provide our corporate clients with more content options, including bringing NDC to life at scale, while streamlining and simplifying our distribution technology footprint and infrastructure.” Decius Valmorbida, President, Travel, Amadeus, said: “We are proud to extend and expand our long-standing partnership with BCD Travel. As the leading technology company in the travel industry, we consistently invest to deliver superior products and services to our customers. The new agreement presents significant potential for mutual growth, and we look forward to partnering with BCD Travel on initiatives to address future challenges and opportunities in the business travel space.”

Amadeus and Microsoft have joined forces to co-author a new report exploring how new technologies will make the experience of travel better. Entitled ‘Delivering Traveler Value: Inspiring, understanding and fulfilling expectations throughout the travel experience and beyond,’ the report looks at how a focus on the ‘purpose’ and ‘context’ of each trip will allow the industry to maximize value.  The report unveils some of the latest milestones of the global strategic partnership between Microsoft and Amadeus. Together, the two technology leaders are working to deliver a new set of tools, solutions, and data applications to offer a next-generation experience for travelers, travel sellers and providers. The report draws on work from Northstar Research Partners, which was commissioned to survey 2,400 business and leisure travelers in six key markets around the world – Brazil, Germany, India, Indonesia, United Kingdom and the United States. The findings provide quantifiable evidence, supported by in-depth interviews with senior leaders from Amadeus, Microsoft and across the travel industry. Explored within the report is the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) within the sector when it comes to making time-sensitive offers, the impact of new technologies such as the metaverse and an evaluation of how enhanced data analytics can deepen the understanding of the traveler. Contributions from partners – including Meliá Hotels International, Expedia Group, TomTom and American Express Global Business Travel – also reveal how the new tools on offer can create more personalized and relevant experiences for travelers. Additionally, the report discusses the technology being developed as part of the Amadeus and Microsoft partnership. This includes the transformational travel and expense solution Cytric Easy and agility and analytics modules of the Amadeus Creation Platform, designed …

Almatar Travel Group and Sabre Corporation signed a new technology agreement at the Saudi Tourism Forum in Riyadh, that will see the travel company uses Sabre’s industry-leading technology and solutions to help drive operational efficiency, advance its virtual payments strategy and transform travellers experience. Under this agreement, Almatar Travel Group will benefit from Sabre’s extensive travel ecosystem including its wide geographic scope and breadth of travel content, which includes air, lodging, ancillary and NDC content. Furthermore, Almatar will access Sabre’s portfolio of innovative technology and intelligent platform, Sabre Red 360, which will help enable the travel company to differentiate its offering, compete more effectively, grow faster in the region, and expand its online travel business. Additionally, Almatar will use Sabre’s APIs and Automation Hub to help it stay competitive in the dynamic Saudi marketplace. “With the impressive developments of the Saudi Vision 2030, we are witnessing increased tourism in the country, allowing us to deal with travellers from around the world with different expectations and accustomed to different technology,” said Faisal Al Rajhi, President, Almatar Travel Group. “We turned to Sabre to advance our technology, expand our reach and equip ourselves with intelligent solutions that make shopping and booking travel intuitive, personalised and flexible which is important to differentiate our offerings in a competitive marketplace.” Almatar Travel Group is advancing its payments solution and will deploy Sabre Virtual Payments (SVP) to help maximize value of its B2B payments and to provide payments flexibility and control, increased fraud protection and security, accurate reconciliation and better automation and efficiency. “We are excited to partner with Sabre at this exciting time to support the Kingdom’s vision and the travel and tourism developments,” said …