Hays Travel switches to Travelport

Iconic travel brand partners with Travelport to fuel next chapter in growth

Langley, 2012-11-13 — /travelprnews.com/ — Travelport has announced that Hays Travel, the UK’s largest Independent travel retailer, has signed a contract to move its GDS business to Travelport.

In addition to providing Hays with air and hotel content, Travelport will also provide Hays with access to its growing range of digital marketing partnerships and services. Deployment of Travelport’s Smartpoint AppTM, with its intelligent translation allowing agents trained on another GDS to be up and running quickly, was key to achieving a smooth migration, and will deliver significant efficiencies to Hays’ staff such as reducing key strokes by up to 72 per cent when booking a flight.

John Hays, Founder and CEO, Hays Travel said: “A critical component in selecting our GDS provider was finding a company that could not only provide us with innovative technology and extensive content, but also had a team whose vision and philosophy was aligned to ours. With Travelport, we have a partner that is bringing a new dynamic to travel distribution, and one that will keep us ahead of the game now and in the future.”

“We are thrilled that Hays Travel has chosen Travelport as their travel technology provider,” added Simon Ferguson, Regional Director UK & Ireland, Travelport. “Hays is one of the most high profile and respected names in UK travel and we are looking forward to working closely with them over the coming months and years to help them grow their business.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

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 over 170 countries, approximately 3,500 employees and 2011 net revenue of $2.0 billion, Travelport is comprised of the global distribution systems (GDS) business, which includes the Galileo and Worldspan brands and its Airline IT Solutions business.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Travelport is a privately owned company.

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

About Hays Travel (www.haystravel.co.uk)
Hays Travel is the UK’s largest independently owned travel agency with over 30 years’ experience providing excellent customer service and unbeatable holiday deals. The company has 43 shops across the north of England, as well as two call centres and over 150 homeworkers, pulling in an annual turnover of more than £400 million. As well as finding people their ideal holiday, Hays Travel organise all the extras like car hire, transfers, foreign currency and insurance.

Over a hundred independent travel retailers also operate under the company’s licenses and bonds. These agents form the Hays Travel Independence Group, a consortium which benefits from the company’s buying power, technology and back office expertise.

Media Contacts

Travelport

Matt Hennessey

Tel: +44 (0) 1753 288329

E-mail: matthew.hennessey@travelport.com

Hays

Caroline Hays

Tel: +44 (0) 207 4708740

E-mail: caroline.hays@hays-travel.co.uk