Travelport has unveiled Travelport Universal API in order to reduce costs and complexities associated with travel distribution.

Published: 05 Oct 2010

Travelport has unveiled Travelport Universal API in order to reduce costs and complexities associated with travel distribution.

According to Travelport, the new offering is the GDS industry’s first application programming interface (API) that offers the power and capacity to aggregate travel content and related services from multiple sources through a single interface:

• GDS content
• Low-cost carrier content
• Directly connected high speed rail content
• Merchandising content including optional services content from travel suppliers worldwide, regardless of the filing method.

As a result of the new technology, developers will be able to access extensive content in a faster and more time efficient manner by coding to one single solution instead of multiple APIs.

Third-party developers, online travel agencies (OTA), travel agencies and consolidators globally will experience many benefits using Travelport Universal API when building travel related applications for deployment on the web, for desktop solutions or mobile applications:

• Improved efficiency and time-to-market
• Streamlined travel supply chain
• Reduced software development costs.

“Today’s travel agencies and developers are challenged by having to tap into multiple websites, GDSs, and supplier-direct channels to access the content, functionality, and pricing they need to satisfy consumer demand and in Travelport Universal API we have the solution,” said Sally Balcombe, chief marketing officer, Travelport.

The company highlighted that customers using applications built with Travelport Universal API benefit greatly from seamless booking experiences through the use of the Travelport Universal Record – a true Super PNR. Travelport Universal Record is an off-host structured database that stores data for all segments booked through the Travelport Universal API – regardless of content source – with full synchronisation back to the GDS PNR to maintain mid- and back-office integration.

Travelport Universal API also works side-by-side with existing APIs.