Sandeep Mamgain and Shanaz Pithawala of SkyLink
Michael DeGrace of AC with Sylvia Eckler of Vision Travel
WS’ Louis Gosselin
AZ’s Michael Magliocco with Open Jaw’s Suzanne Christie
Anyone who remembers the bad old days of wrestling with an OAG would have been very pleased to be at the Woodbine Banquet Hall in Toronto Tuesday evening. The friendly folks at SkyLink coordinated a tradeshow with a dozen airline partners – and combined it with some exciting news of their own.
First, some news from some of the carriers:
- 9W now has daily YYZ – AMS service with same-plane service to DEL and connections to 45 cities in Europe.
- Louis Gosselin of WS reminds agents of the four 767s they’re now operating, including daily service from YYZ and YYT to LGW (as well as new LGW flights from YVR, YYC, YEG and YWG). And WS now has 40 interline partners around the world.
- AC also has a ton
of new routes, and graduates to being one of the few carriers in the world to
serve 6 continents when it launches its seasonal flights between YUL and CMN. The airline is also debuting YYZ to LGW, GLA,
PRA, BUD, WAW and ICN*…plus exciting new
flights YVR-DUB and BNE* and YUL to LYS*. (All flights operated by AC rouge
except those with asterisk.) - Condor's Titus Johnson mentioned their newest addition to their seasonal lineup with the launch of YHZ-MUC flights.
So… what was the big news from SkyLink itself?
Four years ago the company, which acts as a consolidator for some 70 major carriers, launched the TripPro booking platform offering the lowest guaranteed fares and easy access. Now it has been enhanced to include “Self Servicing” which also allows the agent to ticket. “We’ve always been the leader in consolidator technology, and we want to remain ahead of the curve,” SkyLink’s Director of Marketing Shanaz Pithawala told me. “This Self Servicing is a huge enhancement for our customer, the travel agent.”
As Sandeep Mamgain, Director of Sales added, “We are bringing transformation to the way agents deal with a consolidator. You are now in the driver’s seat – able to spend your time on sales while we handle the back office and solve any of those problems.”
What’s next for TripPro? Hotels, some 300,000 of them. Looks like we’ll be kicking the OHRG to the curb as well!
