Farelogix Plans June Market Release for SPRK Agency Platform

Farelogix has expanded its pilot program for the SPRK Travel Agency Platform, a point-of -ale that is fully integrated with all Farelogix direct-connect airlines, and announced that a broader market release is scheduled for June 2010.

The participating airlines are Air Canada, AirTran Airways, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Emirates, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways. Additional carriers, including Etihad, Qatar, Ethiopian and Austrian, will be phased in over the remainder of 2010.

All of the airlines will be offering full-content reservations and post-booking servicing. A growing number also will offer selected bundled products and ancillary services at the point of sale.

The basic package of SPRK capabilities, available to travel agents free of charge, also includes profile and service fee management modules, support for electronic miscellaneous documents and the ability to feed travel data to agency mid- and back-office systems.

Car, hotel and destination content reservations capabilities are integrated through partnerships with CarTrawler, Alliance Reservations Network and Unaira. Itinerary data from SPRK’s multi-source superPNR can be integrated with TripIt’s trip management system.

Optional SPRK add-on features include additional air content from AgentWare and/or seamless integration with an agency’s GDS, provided by PASS Consulting. GDS integration requires permission from the agency’s GDS.

SPRK pilots are being managed on a limited basis. For information, see www.sprk.farelogix.com.

Farelogix also unveiled an enhanced XML Direct Connect technology that enables airlines to sell ancillary products and services across multiple indirect channels. It was developed for airlines that want to control the distribution of their bundled, branded and ancillary products.

The technology is currently in production and gives airlines the choice to sell ancillary products and services across multiple indirect channels. A number of major carriers – including Air Canada, AirTran, American, Continental and United – have embraced the Farelogix XML direct connection strategy.

Control of the new XML Direct Connect technology rests with the airlines. Each airline’s XML Direct Connect includes a normalized “standardized-yet-flexible” application program interface that the airline can use internally and/or choose to make available to its distribution and channel partners. With a single development effort, a third-party developer, a GDS or an intermediary can be “plugged in” to all of the direct-connect airlines. It is then up to individual airlines to decide which connections are activated.