(Cross-posted on the UK Travel blog)

Travelers searching for a good flight deal in Europe may have needed to check multiple online sites to be sure they found the lowest airfare and best flight options. Now with the addition of Ryanair flight information in Google’s Flight Search, it is much easier to find the lowest fare -- at lightning speed.

We are delighted that Ryanair, which is Europe’s largest airline and the largest airline in the world in terms of flown international passengers and which is known for its low fares, has joined the Google Flight Search family.

Using Google’s Flight Search, travelers in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain (as well as Canada and the USA) can quickly find, filter and compare flights, view prices in their local currency, save the results for later, or book directly with any of our booking partners.

Since we launched Flight Search in 2011, we've worked hard to add new features that make it fun, fast and easy to shop and book airfares

• Best Flights and Tips - Quickly get the best answers with suggestions for alternate dates, airports, and trade-off between price and convenience 
• Interactive Maps - users are able to explore possible destinations and view live ticket prices by surfing an interactive map 
• Saved Flights - Results can be saved to track price changes, helping users make smart booking decisions 

Google Flight Search is fast, easy to use and interactive so business people, parents and star crossed lovers can quickly book their travel and get back to their work, parenting or pining. We want to give users as many flight options as possible, so introducing Ryanair is very exciting. We are working to expand our relationships with other airlines and travel partners to bring Flight Search to more countries in Europe and around the world.

Posted by David Robles Fosg, Partner Development, Travel

China Southern Airlines, a SkyTeam member and the largest airline in Asia, signed a multi-year agreement to use our QPX™ pricing and shopping technology to improve the international airfare shopping experience for their online users.

With China becoming one of the world's fastest growing travel markets, China Southern Airlines is the first Chinese airline to take advantage of our technology to enhance the overall shopping experience for their customers. “QPX is the most advanced air ticket pricing and shopping engine in the market. QPX will help us innovate our online air ticket shopping and drive our online direct sales, which will allow us to slash distribution costs.“ said Mr. Jerry Hu, CIO of China Southern Airlines.

China Southern Airlines plans to use QPX for international revenue and reward redemption pricing and shopping, as well as ticket exchanges and refunds. The rollout will take place in phases, with the first release expected in Spring 2014. When launched, China Southern Airlines will provide a faster, more accurate and easier to use online air ticket shopping experience for their customers.

To learn more, visit www.itasoftware.com.

Posted by Kevin Wang, Strategic Partner Manager, Travel

Over the past year Virgin Atlantic completely redesigned www.virigin-atlantic.com and expanded the way they use Google’s QPX™ pricing and shopping technology to simplify and improve the flight shopping process.

Their hard work has definitely paid off, as Virgin Atlantic has seen a significant increase in flight search conversions and the overall value of completed bookings since launch. Additionally, Virgin Atlantic was recently named the Lovie Award’s 2013 Web Futures Gold Winner for Best User Experience. 

David Bulman, Director of Information Technology, Virgin Atlantic, “One of the biggest benefits we realized since launching QPX is the dramatic increase in booking values. It’s easy for customers to quickly compare the different classes of service and realize the value they can get for different fare families. This means customers are frequently trading up and in fact, booking values on our flight search page have increased over 17% year-on-year. Working with Google and implementing QPX technology played a critical contribution to this success.”

We work with our travel partners, like Virgin Atlantic, to make the travel experience better for our users and help them innovate to accomplish their goals. You can check out the video and details about Virgin Atlantic's recent success. Way to go Virgin Atlantic!

Posted by Nicola Simionato, General Manager, Travel, EMEA & APAC

Want to go on that dream vacation with your American Airlines’ AAdvantage miles but not sure where you can fly? Redeeming miles for flights just got easier now that American has launched the new Award Map, powered by our QPX™ Reward Shopping feature.

This new tool helps users quickly and easily search for and book award travel using their AAdvantage miles. Users simply search with criteria, such as destination category by region or interest, and the miles they wish to use, in addition to regular search parameters like their departure airport, dates of travel and cabin preferences. Behind the scenes the QPX Reward Shopping engine quickly computes a huge number of possibilities to present the user with all available award flight options within their desired mileage amount. Available destinations are then displayed on American’s intuitive Award Map, making it easy for travelers to evaluate all their options and book using their AAdvantage miles.

“We’ve had a long standing relationship with American Airlines, helping them innovate with pricing and shopping since 2004,” said Gianni Marostica, Commercial Director for Travel at Google. “We were thrilled to help them take this latest innovation from idea to implementation in a few short months. Congratulations to the team at American Airlines on this exciting and successful launch.”

Posted by Nate Nottke, Senior Technical Account Manager

One year ago, Cape Air launched our new airline platform, a 100% completely new, scalable and modern airline passenger service and reservations system. After 130,000 flights and three New England superstorms, we can say the system has been fully tested and is proven, reliable and efficient.

Hosted on two parallel systems, disaster recovery is integrated into the very architecture of the system. When unplanned events strike, or major infrastructure upgrades are required, we have the capability to move between parallel systems without downtime or interrupted service -- and in a matter of minutes. There is no need for experts to fly data tapes to another safe location or spend hours transferring large data files, as with some legacy systems.

Having a redundant architecture allowed us to move Cape Air from their primary reservations environment to their secondary environment and back again, a number of times over the past year. Even during Nemo, Superstorm Sandy and the recent Nor’easter, Cape Air employees were able to offer uninterrupted service to their customers, getting them where they needed to go -- as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Since launching, Cape Air has seen additional benefits and efficiencies, including:

• The new system made it easy for Cape Air to roll out a steady stream of new features and releases that lighten the load for customers and employees. In the past 12 months, Cape Air integrated 464 improvements with an average integration time of only 30-45 days. 
• The integration between the reservations and departure control components allows Cape Air employees to easily shift between the call center and the airport -- using a system that looks and feels the same across these very unique functions. 
• Agents love how easy it is to check in passengers and baggage, and to add other additional information, to better serve their customers. 
• Cape Air customers often cite the ease of use, convenience of booking with a profile, how quickly and easily they can change and cancel reservations, and the general intuitiveness of the system. 

Dan Wolf, CEO of Cape Air, said “The past year has been full of success moments, in large part thanks to the team and technology provided by ITA. The launch was just about the smoothest I’ve ever seen, and we’ve been able to roll out new features without missing a beat. More importantly, our passengers are finding the way they search, book and travel to be faster, easier and more personal. ITA’s airline platform did not disappoint!”

We’re thrilled with the success Cape Air has had over the past year, and look forward to the exciting updates they’re planning for 2013. To learn more about how Cape Air is making history and delighting its travelers, you can read the full case study.

Posted by Ed Orciuch, Manager, Software Engineering, Travel

MileWise uses our QPX™ pricing and shopping technology on milewise.com to give users a faster and more comprehensive flight shopping experience. Now, Android and Nexus 7 users have access to the same great speed and broad range of search options. In addition to these benefits, QPX also enables other innovative features for MileWise Users: Combo Fares let users combine two one-way tickets with different carriers and payment types, for big potential savings Price Alerts let users instantly know if the lower-tier mileage seat or a great cash fare has become available Search Filters give users a full set of filters, making it easier to find exactly what they're looking for Users also have access to several innovative MileWise features that allow them to:

• Track 500+ programs (including airlines, hotels, credit cards and many others) 
• Explore places to go, using individual rewards or cash 
• Get expiration alerts to make sure they never lose hard-earned miles and points again 
• Receive activity notifications when status level or balance changes 

MileWise lets users see real-time flight prices in cash, airline miles, and hotel and credit-card points -- on one screen. They track reward program balances, status and expirations, combining that data with travel and redemption preferences, to recommend the best way to pay.

Congrats to MileWise on their successful launch. MileWise for Android is available for download in the Google Play Store at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.milewise.app.

To learn more about ITA by Google, visit www.itasoftware.com.

Posted by Asif Khan, Sales and Business Development Manager

Recently, we introduced MileWise as one of our newest QPX™ customers. MileWise presents users with real-time flight prices shown in cash, airline miles, and hotel and credit-card points -- on one screen. MileWise also tracks traveler reward program balances, status and expirations, combining that data with travel and redemption preferences, to recommend the best way to pay.

Now, MileWise users can search with our QPX pricing and shopping technology on milewise.com and their iPhones (Android will be available in Q1 2013). This means MileWise users have improved speed and range of search options whether they’re using their desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile device.

Here’s a snapshot of some of the features MileWise users have access to with MileWise for iPhone: 




Innovative search features enabled by QPX 

• Combo Fares: combine two one-way tickets for big potential savings 
• Recent Searches: quickly re-try searches to see if that mileage seat has opened up 
• Search Filters: full set of filters so users can find exactly what they’re looking for 

More innovative features for MileWise users 

• Track 500+ programs (including airlines, hotels, credit cards and many others) 
• Explore great places to go using individual points and rewards 
• Expiration Alerts: never lose hard-earned miles and points again 
• Receive Price Alerts 
• Activity notifications when status level or balance changes 

Sanjay Kothari, Co-founder, MileWise, said “To become the best one-stop travel search engine, we needed an amazing mobile offering. With ITA's help, we believe we were able to deliver that. And, our Android mobile and tablet versions will be released in the first quarter 2013.”

Congrats to MileWise for their successful launch. MileWise for iPhone is available for download at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/milewise/id548797388?mt=8.

To learn more about ITA by Google, visit www.itasoftware.com.

Posted by Asif Khan, Sales and Business Development Manager

We’re happy to announce that All Nippon Airways (ANA), Japan’s largest airline and one of our first QPX™ customers in Asia, has signed a new multi-year agreement for continued use of ITA’s pricing and shopping engine.

ANA launched QPX in 2008, utilizing our advanced airfare shopping tools to provide international airfare search on www.ana.co.jp. ANA has since expanded their international search capabilities to incorporate calendar, flexible date shopping and multi-city. Most recently, ANA added slice-by-slice search capabilities which allows travelers to customize their itinerary by selecting departure and return options separately.


Headquartered in the Shiodome area in Minato, Tokyo, ANA operates service to 49 destinations in Japan and 31 international routes. They’ve been a great partner and we’re excited to continue supporting their growth and expansion into other international markets over the next several years.

To learn more about ITA Software, visit www.itasoftware.com.

Posted by Lewis Chang, Sr. Technical Account Manager

As one of our newest customers, MileWise recently launched our QPX™ pricing and shopping technology on milewise.com. MileWise presents users with real-time flight prices shown in cash, airline miles, and hotel and credit-card points -- on one screen. MileWise also tracks traveler reward program balances, status and expirations, combining that data with travel and redemption preferences, to recommend the best way to pay.

                  

Using QPX improves the speed and range of options for their users -- and limits results to only those that are available. QPX also enables MileWise to better deliver innovative features for their customers such as Price Alerts, Combo Prices and Explore.

• Price Alerts notify travelers when a “Saver” award or cheap cash fare becomes available for a desired trip. 
• Combo Prices let travelers easily mix and match different ways to pay for a flight. These prices can be cheaper and let travelers with less rewards still use them for travel. 
• Explore inspires travelers by showcasing awesome award prices and fantastic fares for dream destinations and popular places. 

                   

Another feature popular with MileWise users is the WisePrice index that ranks flights based on total price, miles earned (including bonuses) and personalized reward values.

Sanjay Kothari, Co-founder, MileWise, said “The choice for us became clear. To be a one-stop travel search engine, we need the best cash fare inventory, fast response times and powerful search capabilities. That meant partnering with ITA. We’re now able to provide more personalized and flexible searching capabilities and return the lowest prices for vastly more routes.”

We’re looking forward to working with MileWise as they continue to expand their offerings.

To learn more about ITA by Google, visit www.itasoftware.com.

Posted by Asif Khan, Sales and Business Development Manager

Six short months ago, Club Premier announced it would be using QPX™ to power online award shopping on www.clubpremier.com. They’ve accomplished quite a bit since then, and we wanted to share a quick glimpse:

• Grew online flight award redemption nearly 30% by making it easier for members to shop for and redeem Aeroméxico flight awards on their new website. 
• Introduced calendar shopping for Aeroméxico flights, allowing members to view all available flights within the week or the month they’re interested in traveling. 
• Improved look to book ratios by more than 2x, a statistic that is well above the industry average. 
• Dramatically reduced call times for their members and customer service agents, by deploying the same advanced functionality in their call centers. 

Jeremy Rabe, CEO at Club Premier, Aeroméxico said, “We’ve been very happy with the initial launch and how quickly we’ve been able to add new functionality to our site since. Our Club Premier members now have even more flexibility and value for their loyalty.”

Check out the full case study to learn more about the early results Club Premier has achieved with QPX™.

Posted by Brian Mulvey, Program Manager

This year we sponsored the annual Freddie Awards, an awards program started by "frequent flyer guru" Randy Petersen, founder of FlyerTalk.com and editor of Insider Flyer Magazine.

Our customer American Airlines and their AAdvantage loyalty program won the Overall Airline Program of the Year (Americas). American uses our Reward Redemption product to allow AAdvantage members to shop online for flights using miles. Suzanne Rubin, President, American AAdvantage Loyalty Programs, accepted the award.



According to the Freddie Awards blog, “AAdvantage treats elite members well. Many members would say that the program offers the best domestic award availability of any U.S. airline and AAdvantage miles offer some of the most lucrative international award redemptions in the industry. Members are clearly happy after all these years.”

The Freddie Awards were inspired by Sir Freddie Laker, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to commercial aviation. Winners are determined by members of frequent traveler programs who vote for their favorite program in a variety of categories. This year over 1.3 million global program members voted for their favorite programs.

The awards ceremony was held on April 26 at the Renaissance Hotel, Newark Airport. Over 400 travel industry executives, journalists and bloggers attended the gala event. The son of Sir Freddie Laker, Freddie Laker Jr., made a special guest appearance and helped emcee the event along with Randy Petersen and actor Robert Wuhl.



Congratulations to American Airlines and all the winners!

Posted by Cara Kretz, Sr. Manager Marketing, Communications and Public Affairs, Travel

Hipmunk, the winner of Travel + Leisure’s Best Travel Websites 2011, is known for their lovable logo and their commitment to removing “agony” from travel planning. “We wanted to find a way to give people the best high level understanding of results and make it easier to mentally narrow down what the best options are,” said Adam Goldstein, co-founder and CEO, Hipmunk.

Hipmunk integrated ITA’s QPX™ pricing and shopping technology in January 2011, to give travelers more comprehensive results and more flexibility in how those results are displayed. According to Adam, “The way we standardized how the results are displayed was a huge differentiator, and a big reason why people love Hipmunk. We built a site to help users find a way to easily compare schedules, prices, lengths of flights and duration for example. As it turned out our users became passionate about Hipmunk and we see them sharing their Hipmunk experiences with friends, family and colleagues. What we’re doing does take the agony out of the experience, and it worked out far better than we hoped!”

Hipmunk recently implemented ITA’s Boombox, a comprehensive integration platform that provides a simple API and hosted service layer for QPX. Adam said, “QPX and Boombox certainly remove agony from our engineers’ lives, allowing them to work a lot more quickly and efficiently to roll out new features that help users.”

I sat down with Adam to ask him about his thoughts on travel technology, the success Hipmunk’s had with QPX over the past year and a few other personal thoughts.

What have you done with QPX that has helped differentiate Hipmunk or been really popular with your users?
There are several things we’ve been able to do with QPX that help remove agony from travel planning, such as:

• Calendar shopping, 
• Multi-city shopping, 
• Search filters for multiple airlines and flexible dates, 
• ITA routing language that lets users fine tune search parameters before they click search, and 
• Integrated airfare shopping results with Google Calendars. 

QPX lets us enable people to specify what they want and what they don’t want at the time of search. They can use special routing notation to search for certain airlines, cities, flights -- or even specify cities they don’t want to connect through, maybe because those airports are known for having terribly long layovers, frequent delays or weather issues -- all to return the most relevant search results right away. This has been pretty popular with frequent fliers.

Another thing that’s really popped is the ability to interact with people’s calendars. When users log in, they can integrate their Google Calendar with Hipmunk to easily see which flights fit within their schedules. QPX powers that flight search and is super flexible in supporting this integration.

How has Hipmunk benefited the most since working with us?
The quality and speed is great! This applies to the results we return to users as well as the speed in which we’re able to roll out changes to our site. We talked about the Boombox integration earlier -- but it’s nice that our users benefit from new features more often when we don’t have to worry about implementation.

What change in technology has had the biggest impact on the travel industry over the last decade?
The biggest impact? Probably smart phones. We recently saw our first day in which our mobile usage exceeded web usage. Even absent any macro trends, people are finding mobile experiences to be much more seamless and important. And, having the same power on your phone as you do on a desktop is incredible -- especially if you’re stuck in an airport and need to find a flight out. I think more and more of the technical power and experience we have on our mobile devices will migrate to desktops as well.

What have you learned about the travel industry that surprised you?
There are a lot of big companies in this industry that are slow to adapt to change. The systems and websites of some airlines and suppliers make engineering changes extremely slow. We’re really fortunate to be able to iterate as quickly as we do.

What's the funniest thing that's happened to you while traveling?
That depends on your sense of humor. I’ve been stranded and have bumped into people I know half way across the world, in Buenos Aires and Hong Kong. But, one especially funny incident; we were in Turkey, driving through the countryside between two cities about eight hours apart -- basically, in the middle of nowhere. We saw a restaurant called Mantar Evi - which means Mushroom House. It sprung up pretty randomly, and the entire menu was all mushrooms. I was pleasantly surprised. Honestly, it was the most delicious and best meal we had on our entire trip. Check it out if you’re ever in Korkuteli Turkey.

Hipmunk has been a great team to work with over the past year plus! I’m looking forward to helping them come up with new ways to remove “agony” from the travel planning experience. You can learn more about Hipmunk on their Google+ page.

Posted by Scott Myles, Senior Technical Account Manager

The best airfare deals across their combined global network, instantly!

Affinity Search uses ITA Software’s pricing and shopping technology to let travelers search the AFKL global network for the best deals. Results immediately display the lowest price for each destination with an intuitive Google Maps solution. It also includes filters that make it easy for travelers to select flights based on price, dates, duration and more.



When travelers select a point of departure, the new feature instantly returns prices to AFKL destinations worldwide for travel during a period of up to 180 days from the departure date. The traveler can then explore the results returned and complete a booking in a few simple steps.

Martijn van der Zee, SVP of eCommerce, AFKL said they selected ITA to develop Affinity Search because, “We knew they were the best partner for the job. We’ll be able to give our travelers useful features with ITA’s technology and we like their commitment to solving difficult airfare search problems.”

A global leader in air travel and Europe’s largest airline, AFKL has long been focused on driving value for their customers. They soft launched Affinity Search on airfrance.com for the Austrian, Finnish, Greek, Italian, Spanish and UK markets, and on klm.com for Finland, Greece and Austria. Now, they are progressively extending the functionality to their other country websites.

We can’t wait to see what AFKL does next. 

To learn more about ITA, visit www.itasoftware.com.

Posted by Nicola Simionato, Head of Account Management, EMEA

Mexico’s leading coalition loyalty program and the operator of Aeroméxico’s frequent flyer program, Club Premier, recently launched a completely new website, www.clubpremier.com that allows Club Premier members to redeem awards online. Powered by our QPX™ pricing and shopping engine, the new website makes it much easier for members to shop and redeem kilometers for Aeroméxico flights. 

As part of the launch, Club Premier introduced two ways for members to use their awards -- using Classic Awards or Always Awards. The Classic Award program offers members the best value for their kilometers. This program uses traditional, fixed mileage awards based on limited availability. As you can see in the example below, Classic Awards are only available for the top two flights traveling from Mexico City to Cancun:



However, the Always Awards program is more flexible. Always Awards point requirements are based on the current availability and price of tickets, but are always available for redemption. This means if a Classic Award is sold out, Club Premier members can still book an Aeroméxico award seat with their Always Awards. This is great for popular routes that sell out quickly.

Using the same example where a traveler wants to go from Mexico City to Cancun, you can see they now have access to all Aeroméxico flights, even those that were previously unavailable using their Classic Award kilometers.



“We’ve been very happy with the product and the people who helped us implement QPX. It was a pleasure working with them” said Jeremy Rabe, CEO, Director General, Club Premier, Aeroméxico. “And, because of the new functionality, our Club Premier members will get even more flexibility and value for their loyalty.”

We’re really pleased to have Club Premier as part of the ITA Software by Google family. We look forward to seeing what comes next.

Posted by Mike Mo, Sales and Business Development Manager

We’ve long been focused on making travel planning easier and faster for travelers, and helping airlines and travel companies deliver great travel experiences. We started with airfare shopping; today we’re pleased to introduce our new airline platform.

Cape Air, one of the largest independent regional airlines in the U.S., launched our new airline platform this past weekend. Dan Wolf, the CEO of Cape Air, said “It has been about the smoothest technology rollout as I have ever seen. It went so smoothly in fact most customers probably didn’t notice.”

The platform contains software required to run a passenger airline, including a reservation system, inventory control system, departure control system, and more.

We’ve built this system from scratch using modern, modular, scalable technologies. The system’s modern user interfaces make it easy to learn and use. The system’s modern, comprehensive database lets airlines offer customers more personal attention. The modular technology makes it easier to change the system as airline needs change. The system is built to scale to support airlines of all sizes.

The new websites for capeair.com and nantucketairlines.com enable Cape Air customers to quickly find and book the most relevant flights, and manage changes to their reservations.



We’ve worked to develop a system that is very easy to learn and use, and we’re pleased that Cape Air was able to train its reservations and airport agents in only two days.

Dan Wolf said “Our employees love the system, and we think our passengers will find the way they search, book and travel to be faster, easier and more personal. We’re also excited about our partnership with ITA Software by Google. We will have even more innovative and visionary things coming in 2012.”

In conjunction with this launch, Cape Air also rolled out a Google+ Page for its business to promote deals, hang out with customers, announce new products, services, and routes -- and build relationships with a greater number of people.



The system that Cape Air used until last week was first launched 48 years ago. Thank you to the hundreds of people from ITA Software/Google and Cape Air whose dedication and hard work have helped us launch Cape Air into the future.

Posted by Jeremy Wertheimer, Vice President, Travel

Each year we interview our QPX™ pricing and shopping customers to find out what we do well and where we need to improve. Since we started the survey in 2007, we’ve seen satisfaction with our products and service climb. We were especially pleased that this year’s survey yielded strong results. 100% of participants were somewhat or very satisfied with our QPX pricing and shopping products, and 96% were somewhat or very satisfied with the service we provide. One customer said that while there is always room for improvement, the service gets better every year -- from the engineers to the technical support staff to the customer-facing team.

While it’s great to hear the positive feedback, the real value is in what we do with the suggestions for improvement. Our internal teams look forward to hearing the survey results and are focused on coming up with creative solutions to address any suggestions identified by our customers.

My hat’s off to all the teams that focus on making our products even better and giving our customers the tremendous support that keeps them so happy. We’re committed to listening to what our customers want and partnering with them to make them successful. I think that’s what makes these relationships so strong.

Posted by Eli Sanders, Director, Technical Account Management and Customer Support

It’s Vegas baby! From the lights of the famous Las Vegas Strip to world-class entertainment to celebrity chefs to the Hoover Dam, Vegas has something for everyone.

And the crew over at VEGAS.com are experts when it comes to what to do in Vegas. They offer amazing Vegas travel choices, from air packages to hotels to shows to tours to front-of-the-line nightclub passes and beyond. More than 2.5 million unique visitors visit VEGAS.com websites each month. VEGAS.com even runs the concierge desks at Las Vegas Resorts. They’re that plugged in! And now they’re making it easier to fly to their beloved city.

In November 2011, VEGAS.com launched our airfare pricing and shopping system QPX™, to help travelers quickly and easily find the best airfare deals available on their website.



Welcome to the family, VEGAS.com.

To learn more about ITA by Google visit www.itasoftware.com.

Posted by Mike Mo, Senior Business Development Manager

The Star Alliance FareFinder app can now be used on Android, BlackBerry and iPhone. The free flight search app, powered by ITA Software by Google, lets travelers search, find and shop for the best airfares for domestic and international trips across all 27 Star Alliance member airlines. It can be used by frequent flyer members and non frequent flyer members. FareFinder enables you to quickly find the best flight and offers an option to book your preferred flight directly from your mobile device.



Find out more about FareFinder and how to download or access the app on the Star Alliance website.

Posted by David Peller, General Manager, EMEA/India/Asia-Pacific

H.I.S., one of the largest Asia-Pacific multinational travel agencies, wanted to make it easier for customers to plan travel online. They also knew they would need flexible and advanced airfare shopping tools to complete a critical project to reengineer their booking platform. After careful evaluation they chose our airfare pricing system, QPX™.

On November 15, 2011, the H.I.S. and ITA teams successfully completed the first phase of the project, launching QPX live on the H.I.S. consumer website, his-j.com.



With its global headquarters in Japan, H.I.S. is considered a leader in the retail agency domain. They have more than 280 walk-in outlets in Japan, with more than 108 branches in over 84 international cities. 

Kiyoshi Takano, executive officer and general manager, information system division, H.I.S., said “I’m delighted to have selected and now deployed ITA Software. QPX will help us differentiate our online shopping experience, by offering more innovative and comprehensive airline products -- regardless of the point-of-sale.”

We’re looking forward to working with H.I.S. as they expand their global online presence.

To learn more about ITA, visit www.itasoftware.com.

Posted by David Peller, General Manager, EMEA/India/Asia-Pacific

(Cross-posted on the Google Turkey Official Blog)

Turkish Airlines just signed a multi-year agreement with us to use QPX, our airfare pricing and shopping technology. They plan to use it for revenue and reward redemption pricing and shopping, as well as ticket exchanges and refunds.

The rollout will take place in phases, with the first release expected in Q3 2012. When launched, Turkish Airlines customers will be able to use the same advanced airfare shopping tools across all channels -- whether they shop turkishairlines.com, agency websites, the THY Mobile Application, or by visiting one of their ticket offices.



When we asked Turkish Airlines why they selected us, Mr. Adnan Metin, senior vice president, corporate development and CIO, Turkish Airlines replied, “The flexibility of QPX will let us roll out more advanced features, faster, and consistently across all of our channels. Ultimately, this will make travel planning much easier for our customers and will improve our revenues.”

A Star Alliance member, Turkish Airlines is the fastest growing and fourth largest European airline. They are the most recent airline in Europe to take advantage of our technology to enhance the overall shopping experience for their customers while driving sales and slashing distribution costs.

To learn more, visit www.itasoftware.com. 

Posted by David Peller, General Manager, EMEA/India/Asia-Pacific