Flight Centre Travel Group announces strategic investment in TPConnects
Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) has strengthened its technology roadmap and air content offering to customers by securing an initial 22.47% interest in TPConnects Technologies LLC. The Dubai-based travel technology company is a leading provider of travel technology solutions focusing on NDC (New Distribution Capability) and ‘One Order’ initiatives from IATA (International Airline Passengers Association).
The strategic investment supports FCTG’s key objective of sourcing and offering customers the widest choice of airline and travel content globally, particularly for its corporate clients managed by specialist divisions, FCM Travel Solutions and Corporate Traveller.
FCTG has worked closely with TPConnects since 2019 to deliver specific airline NDC content to corporate customers in Europe. TPConnects also designed solutions for FCTG enabling FCM and Corporate Traveller consultants to offer NDC content to customers, without any interruptions to duty of care, reporting or servicing. This collaboration with TPConnects, also enabled FCTG to become the first global travel management company to attain IATA Level 4 NDC certification in December 2019.
Steve Norris, Managing Director EMEA, Flight Centre Travel Group said: “Sourcing and distributing the world’s broadest range of airline content has always been the backbone of the FCTG business. As airlines continue to disrupt the way in which they distribute their content, it’s essential for FCTG to be able to offer all relevant air fares to customers, in particular our corporate clients.
“We are excited to have made this strategic investment, which provides tremendous opportunity for our company and our customers, and ensures we are at the forefront of developments that are taking place now. We’ve been working closely with TPConnects and have been impressed by the capability and flexibility of its NDC-enabled retailing and distribution technology.
“FCTG was a launch partner with both Amadeus’ NDC-X and Sabre’s Beyond NDC programmes and we will continue to prioritise these GDS technology providers in the long term for the vast majority of NDC content. However, this investment in TPConnects will enable us to aggregate additional content not available through the GDS from a variety of different sources into our various products across the leisure and corporate sector”.
Mick Heitzinger, Product Director, EMEA, Flight Centre Travel Group added: “We aim to deliver a seamless and personalised booking experience for our customers, regardless of where and how the content is sourced. With this investment FCTG can create a vastly enhanced customer experience of the future, where consistent and comparable content can be consumed through the traveller’s channel of choice.
“As FCTG continues to offer new and exciting customer products, it’s more important than ever that we’re able to seamlessly serve up our air content to customers in a clear and straight forward way that enhances the customer experience,” he said.