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25th September, 2009. London.
CarTrawler, the world’s largest provider of
car rental distribution technology to the airline
industry, was voted as the winner of the prestigious
“Budgie
Award” for Innovation in a ceremony at the
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre this week (23rd
September).
The Awards, which run alongside the World Low Cost
Airlines Congress, showcase excellence in the global
low cost airline industry. A Budgie Award is recognition
of the low cost airline industry’s achievements
and contributions to the forward development of
the industry.
In a gala ceremony, and cheered on by Herb Kelleher,
co-founder SouthWest Airlines, and Andrew Harrison,
CEO Easyjet, winners across the low cost aviation
industry were awarded their gongs. The finalists were
selected by a distinguished panel of judges, including:
John Hanlon, Secretary General of the European Low
Fare Association; John Strickland, CEO of JLS Consulting;
Jay Sorenson, CEO, IdeaWorks and Peter Harbison, Executive
Director, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.Greg Turley,
CEO of CarTrawler, adds: “The top low cost airlines
in Europe agree that having more than one car rental
supplier in their offering is key to maximizing their
sales of this vital ancillary product. We at CarTrawler
have partnered with all the top car hire companies
in the world to make this perfect fit of online retailer
and supplier happen. The shift from a single to a
multi-supplier offering has already driven dramatic
improvements for our partner airlines, and we continue
to build on that within Europe and further afield
in North America and Australasia.”
For further information, contact: Sophy Norris, Flagship
Consulting, 020 7 886 8440, sophy.norris@flagshipconsulting.co.uk
Editor’s Notes:
Background:
In three years CarTrawler has signed a total airline
passenger audience of over 120 million passengers
annually, making it the largest provider of car rental
booking solutions in the world. It is an award winning
next generation global car rental distribution system,
which gives Airlines, Hotel and Online Travel Agents
(OTA’s) access to an exceptional source of ancillary
revenue. It naturally pairs flight itineraries with
car rental, giving partners real-time access to pricing,
availability and bookings from over 450 car hire suppliers,
at 17,000 locations – every major and regional
airport and city location worldwide - in 134 countries.
All of this from within their existing sites, allowing
them to pursue a multiple supplier strategy. CarTrawler
built its technology platform from the ground-up,
creating a number of car rental distribution firsts,
and ensuring a total end-to-end solution. Its Multi-Lingual
Direct Connect technology provides a guaranteed sub-second
response time on all car rental requests. It is designed
to accommodate preferred car hire supplier ranking,
delivering availability and pricing in either an opaque
or transparent selling model. CarTrawler can also
handle the airline’s own contracted rates with
the car rental companies; its own, pre-negotiated
national rates; or a combination of the two. It is
up to CarTrawler’s partners to chose the system
which works best for them, and CarTrawler’s
flexible technology allows for a range of solutions
CarTrawler Highlights 2008
| January |
Launch in South Africa with
ClubTravel |
| February |
- Winner of inaugural Innovation Award at
London’s Travel Technology
- Show CSR Programme Launched
- Strategic Alliance announced with Datalex |
| March |
Strategic Alliance announced with ARC, enabling
CarTrawler to reach X US travel agents |
| April |
Agreement signed with MyAir.com, Italy |
| May |
First Bi-annual car rental trends Index
launched with new research |
| June |
Agreement signed with ClickAir, Spain |
| August |
Agreements signed with Norwegian Air Shuttle,
Norway Fly and Nordic Sweden.” |
| September |
Agreements pending with three further airlines
in Europe and North America |
| October/Novembe |
New desk top product aimed at travel agents
scheduled for launch |
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Click Takes
The Driving Seat With New Car Rental System
Dublin, Ireland, September 2008
Travel management innovator Click
Travel is firmly in the fast lane after announcing
a partnership with global car rental distribution
company, Car Trawler; adding the finishing touches
to its extensive online travel booking facility.
The introduction of a new car rental system is
the latest addition to Click’s TMC service
and provides its customers with direct access to
the best car hire rates from over 450 car rental
firms, in 1334 countries.
Commenting on the new system, Click Travel managing
director Simon McLean said: “We’re really
excited about the launch of this new service that
completes our line up of online travel services,
which also includes hotels, air and rail.
“The flawless system will allow our customers
to pre-book car travel in countries across the globe
at the touch of a button and is a really exciting
development for Click. Furthermore, our customers
will be able to view high resolution images of the
available cars, prepay for their rental account
and use the pioneering search facility to ensure
they receive the most efficient service possible.
“We’ve also incorporated our comprehensive
travel policy compliance and cost coding solution
which will offer both added financial and efficiency
benefits.”
Robin White, Car Trawler senior sales manager,
added: “We are delighted to be working with
Click at this exciting time. Both of our companies
are dedicated to being at the forefront of new technology
and providing customers with the highest level quality
of service.
“We are delighted to offer Click Travel customers
the benefits afforded by our multi supplier global
car rental distribution system and look forward
to a long and prosperous relationship”. |
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CarTrawler™
signs low-cost carrier Norwegian.com
Dublin, Ireland, March 2008
CarTrawler has today signed a multi year agreement
with Norwegian low cost carrier Norwegian.com to
exclusively provide car rental content across all
its sales channels.
Norwegian.com , one of Europe's largest low cost
carriers which operates 162 routes to 87 destinations
from hubs in Norway, Sweden and Poland, will use
the CarTrawler distribution system and its Koios
revenue management tools to seamlessly offer car
rental from all the top European car hire brands
in an unbiased display and within the air booking
process on the carrier’s award winning website.
Commenting on the deal, Lars Sande, Sales Director
of Norwegian.com stated: "In CarTrawler, we
have found a company that understands the airline
ancillary revenue model as well as having an inside
track on the car hire business. Their ability to
integrate car rental content from a long list of
top quality car hire companies - seamlessly - into
all our passenger touch points will deliver a significant
boost to our non air revenue".
Bobby Healy, CTO CarTrawler, concludes: "Our
experience, and that of our many airline partners,
is that choice as well as effective implementation
yields better revenue per passenger than any single
supplier solution in the industry today. Norwegian.com
is a major European airline, and with eight million
passengers predicted for 2008, we expect to see
car rental add real uplift to bottom line revenues."
In three years CarTrawler has signed a total airline
passenger audience of over 120 million passengers
annually, making it the largest provider of car
rental booking solutions in the world.
For further information contact:
Sophy Norris/Laura Pykett, Flagship Consulting.
Lars Sande, Director of Sales in Norwegian.com
About CarTrawler™:
CarTrawler™ is an award winning next generation
global car rental distribution system, which gives
Airlines, Hotel and Online Travel Agents (OTA’s)
access to an exceptional source of ancillary revenue.
It naturally pairs flight itineraries with car rental,
giving partners real-time access to pricing, availability
and bookings from over 450 car hire suppliers, at
17,000 locations – every major and regional
airport and city location worldwide - in 134 countries.
All of this from within their existing sites, allowing
them to pursue a multiple supplier strategy. .
CarTrawler built its technology platform from the
ground-up, creating a number of car rental distribution
firsts, and ensuring a total end-to-end solution.
Its Multi-Lingual Direct Connect technology provides
a guaranteed sub-second response time on all car
rental requests. It is designed to accommodate preferred
car hire supplier ranking, delivering availability
and pricing in either an opaque or transparent selling
model. CarTrawler can also handle the airline’s
own contracted rates with the car rental companies;
its own, pre-negotiated national rates; or a combination
of the two. It is up to CarTrawler’s partners
to chose the system which works best for them, and
CarTrawler’s flexible technology allows for
a range of solutions.
Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA– branded Norwegian.com
- is a low-fare, point-to-point airline, registered
on the Oslo Stock Exchange was established 1 September
2002. Norwegian started with four aircraft –
Boeing 737-300 and four domestic routes. Today the
company has seven bases in Europe – Oslo/Gardermoen,
Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger, Oslo/Rygge, Stockholm
and Warsaw and offers 150 routes to over 80 destinations
mainly in Europe, but also to Middle East and North
Africa. The company has approx. 1,400 people. Norwegian
will receive 53 Boeing 737-800 from 2008-2014. Today
the fleet consist of 27 Boeing 737-300, six Boeing
733-800 and eight MD80. The company’s headquarters
are located at Fornebu, outside Oslo, Norway.
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CarTrawler and
clickair in Major Ancillary Revenue Initiative
In a further move to consolidate its position
as the worlds leading provider of car rental ancillary
revenue streams for airlines, CarTrawler has announced
an exclusive multi-year deal with Spanish low cost
operator clickair.
With budgeted passenger figures of over 7M in 2008,
clickair
are one of the largest and the fastest growing low
cost carrier in Europe.
The new system which was launched today on clickair.com
features car rental offers from major car hire companies
in an unbiased display, allowing consumers to choose
from all the major car hire brands, and is integrated
seamlessly in the air booking path on clickair.com.
Commenting on the launch, Jaime Lloret, VP Marketing
of clickair said "Ancillary revenue is a core part
of our growth strategy, and car rental forms a significant
portion of that. Offering our passengers the best
possible instrument to facilitate choice was our
central goal in selecting CarTrawler as our partner".
"Offering value to the consumer is key to achieving
the maximum possible conversion when selling car
rental. clickair have truly set the new standard
for car rental ancillary selling and we look forward
to a long and prosperous relationship with them."
added Robin White, VP Business Development CarTrawler.
About clickair:
With headquarters in Barcelona, clickair
started operations in October 2006 and is today
Spain’s leading low fares airline. It currently
operates a 24-strong fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft
serving more than 60 domestic and international
routes to the British Isles, Continental Europe
and North Africa from bases in Barcelona, Valencia,
Seville, Vigo, La Corunna and Bilbao. The airline
is backed by five major Spanish companies, each
with a 20% share of the equity. These are Iberia
airlines; Nefinsa (parent of Spanish regional carrier
Air Nostrum); Spanish construction and infrastructures
group ACS, through its Cobra affiliate; hotel and
resort company Iberostar and Quercus Equity, the
investment arm of of the Agrolimen food and services
group.
About CarTrawler:
CarTrawler™ is an award winning next generation
global car rental distribution system, which gives
Airlines, Hotel and Online Travel Agents (OTA's)
access to an exceptional source of ancillary revenue.
It naturally pairs flight itineraries with car rental,
giving partners real-time access to pricing, availability
and bookings from over 450 car hire suppliers, at
17,000 locations – every major and regional
airport and city location worldwide - in 134 countries.
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CarTrawler goes
live with low-cost Italian Carrier Myair.com
World leading car rental distribution company,
CarTrawler has signed a deal with a leading low-cost
carrier. Myair.com
has gone live with CarTrawler, adding to CarTrawler's
rapidly growing portfolio of airline (over 95) and
online travel agency (more than 1,500) customers
around the world.
CarTrawler's content has been integrated into all
myair.com's key consumer touch points (from a stand-alone
booking engine, to dynamic cross selling options
during the booking flow, to promotional email marketing
opportunities) enabling the pan-European carrier
to sell real-time inventory and pricing from major
car rental suppliers (independent and branded) in
each of the 30 Italian and European destinations
it serves (as well as the potential to access 450
suppliers in over 134 countries worldwide).
Through its strategic agreements with airlines such
as LOT Polish Airlines, VLM, Blue1 and its most
recent announcement with SITA, CarTrawler now provides
incremental revenue opportunities to almost 100
airlines internationally. With data showing 4-5%
of flight bookings resulting in a car rental booking
when upsold, CarTrawler is becoming an important
choice for airlines seeking to maximize ancillary
revenue.
Commenting on the agreement, Bobby Healy CTO of
CarTrawler said "we are delighted to add myair.com
to our growing portfolio, and to enable them to
offer dynamically cross sell car rental to their
customers. This marks a very important milestone
for both myair and CarTrawler."
Lorenzo Lorenti, Commercial Director of Myair adds:
"We will be able to offer our customers the best
choice and brands on the market and benefit our
bottom line at the same time, and are particularly
pleased to achieve the maximum potential conversion
through CarTrawler's dynamic channel management
technology."
About Myair.com:
Established in 2004, Myair.com
started operating with three Airbus A320-200s. Extensive
experience in commercial aviation, high degree of
professionalism and motivation are the main values
and skills Myair.com management team. Today the
airline‘s fleet consists of seven A320-200s
and four Bombardier CRJ-900 (with 15 more on order).
MyAir operates scheduled flights that link Milan,
Bologne, Venice, Bari, Bucharest, Catania, Palermo,
Rome, Paris and Sofia with over 30 European destinations
and also with Casablanca and Marrakech.
About CarTrawler:
CarTrawler™ is an award winning next generation
global car rental distribution system, which gives
Airlines, Hotel and Online Travel Agents (OTA's)
access to an exceptional source of ancillary revenue.
It naturally pairs flight itineraries with car rental,
giving partners real-time access to pricing, availability
and bookings from over 450 car hire suppliers, at
17,000 locations – every major and regional
airport and city location worldwide - in 134 countries.
All of this from within their existing sites, allowing
them to pursue a multiple supplier strategy.
CarTrawler built its technology platform from the
ground-up, creating a number of car rental distribution
firsts, and ensuring a total end-to-end solution.
Its Multi-Lingual Direct Connect technology provides
a guaranteed sub-second response time on all car
rental requests. It is designed to accommodate preferred
car hire supplier ranking, delivering availability
and pricing in either an opaque or transparent selling
model. CarTrawler can also handle the airline's
own contracted rates with the car rental companies;
its own, pre-negotiated national rates; or a combination
of the two. It is up to CarTrawler's partners to
chose the system which works best for them, and
CarTrawler's flexible technology allows for a range
of solutions.
By integrating CarTrawler's unique technology into
airline, hotel & OTA's booking engines, CarTrawler
facilitates the dynamic cross-selling of car rental
- a high yield, uncomplicated product - by maximising
conversion rates and revenue at all individual customer
touch-points.
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CarTrawler™
extends reach into North America
Washington VA, 19 March 2008
In a move that will instantly allow nearly 20,000
US travel agents to earn more commission on car
rental, Dublin based CarTrawler, and the Airlines
Reporting Corporation (ARC)
have agreed to deliver the CarTrawler platform to
Travel Agency locations and Corporate Travel Departments
across North America.
Opening up a major low cost distribution channel
for all North American car rental suppliers, the
system will be available to all ARC-accredited travel
agents, Corporate Travel Departments (CTD), and
Verified Travel Consultants (VTC). The deal will
allow easy access to commissionable car rental products
from the top rent-a-car suppliers in North America.
It also gives unbiased access to all car rental
suppliers without the use of a GDS and through the
latest Web 2.0 technology. In addition, the entire
global coverage of CarTrawler will be made available
for international bookings covering 450 suppliers
in 134 countries around the world.
Commenting on the partnership, Greg Turley CEO CarTrawler
said ARC is the backbone of the North American
travel industry, and by working together with CarTrawler
and the best auto rental brands in the world, ARC
is really providing an excellent incremental revenue
source for its travel agency base. This is a ringing
endorsement for the CarTrawler distribution strategy,
and we're very proud of this milestone in our growth.
ARC has been consistently adding value for our
travel agency customer base, and we believe that
in CarTrawler we have found a partner that is going
to make a great addition to the range of services
and products currently available through ARC MarketPlace.
Car rental is an extremely important source of revenue
for travel agencies, and travel agencies are an
extremely important distribution channel for car
rental companies. In ARC marketplace, we have put
the two together to generate a brand new selling
platform that's going to benefit everyone,Said
Lauri Reshus, ARC General Manager, Industry Products
& Services.
About CarTrawler™:
CarTrawler™ is a next generation global car
rental distribution system, now serving over 95
international airlines and over 1,500 online partners,
enabling its customers to access pricing, availability
and bookings from over 450 car hire suppliers in
134 Countries globally in real-time, from within
their existing sites. By integrating CarTrawler
technology into booking engines CarTrawler facilitates
the dynamic cross-selling of car rental a high yield,
uncomplicated product - into Airline, Hotel, Online
Travel Agents (OTA's), National Tourism Organisation
& Travel Agency Call Centres across all customer
touch-points.
About ARC:
ARC is the premier provider of financial settlement
solutions and data and analytical services for the
travel industry. Airlines, travel agencies, corporate
travel departments, railroads, and other travel
suppliers process $80 billion annually through ARC's
world-class settlement system, making it the financial
backbone of travel distribution. ARC COMPASS®, the
leading, trusted source for travel transaction information,
powers data and analytical tools that help ARC customers
make confident business decisions. ARC is an airline-owned
company that builds on values of integrity, teamwork,
innovation, cost-effectiveness, and excellence.
For more information, please visit http://www.arccorp.com.
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| Gregory Turley
Co-Founder, Micheál Martin, Minister for Enterprise,
Trade & Employment at the announcing of
the CarTrawler and Airlines Reporting Corporation
(ARC) deal in Silicon Valley Palo Alto, California
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Industry Leaders
Join Forces to Boost Airline Ancillary Revenue
Dublin, 20 February 2008
Datalex and CarTrawler™ have today entered
into a strategic agreement which will combine the
power and flexibility of the Datalex Travel Distribution
Platform (TDP), with the multi-source procurement
capability of CarTrawler's Car Rental Distribution
system
The core addition to the Datalex flagship product
is immediately available to all users of TDP - and
allows its customers to instantly access any number
of CarTrawler's 450 car hire companies, across 134
countries and 17,000 car rental locations in realtime,
with a single uniform and unbiased view.
Commenting on the agreement, Ornagh Hoban, Datalex
VP Marketing & Strategy noted "Incorporating
the CarTrawler procurement capability will enable
rich, normalized and real time content procurement
from multiple car rental sources which aligned with
the reservations and distribution capability of
TDP provides significant value-add to our customers."
Mike Mc Gearty, COO for CarTrawler™ stated
"the ultimate product of this exciting partnership
is an increase in car rental revenue for Datalex
customers. It's also worth noting that as CarTrawler
is a neutral distribution system, we have enabled
a new level of commercial flexibility between those
same customers and the car hire companies they choose
to partner with. We really see this as a win for
airlines and car hire companies alike, and are delighted
to be aligned with a forward thinking company like
Datalex."
About Datalex:
Datalex is a leading provider of travel distribution
software and solutions that enable global travel
industry suppliers and distributors deliver increased
content and choice to their customers across multiple
sales channels, while enabling record reductions
in distribution costs. Its customers include major
airlines and travel distribution organizations such
as Aer Lingus, Flight Centre, Philippine Airlines,
SAS, Saudi Arabian Airlines, South African Airways,
STA, Travel, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.
Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, the company maintains
offices in Europe, Singapore, Australia and USA.
Datalex is a publicly held company traded on the
Irish Stock Exchange (symbol: DLE, and also OTC:
DLEXY). For more information, please visit the company's
Web site at www.datalex.com.
About CarTrawler™:
CarTrawler™ is a global car rental distribution
system, now serving over 95 international airlines
and over 1,500 online partners, enabling its customers
to access pricing, availability and bookings from
over 450 car hire suppliers in 134 Countries globally
in real-time, from within their existing sites.
By integrating CarTrawler technology into booking
engines CarTrawler facilitates the dynamic cross-selling
of car rental a high yield, uncomplicated product
- into Airline, Hotel, Online Travel Agents (OTA's),
National Tourism Organisation & Travel Agency
Call Centers across all customer touch-points. |
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CarTrawler™
pledges to plant enough trees to fill Giants Stadium
11th February 2008
CarTrawler™ the leading car rental technology
and distribution company, has today launched a new
Environmental Initiative and its CSR Policy. The
launch of the ‘WORLDWIDE 100' scheme, where
a tree is planted for every 100 car rental reservations
made through the CarTrawler reservation system,
has enabled the company to pledge to plant enough
oak trees throughout 2008 to fill an area the size
of Giants Stadium
‘WORDLWIDE 100' has been launched in conjunction
with The Curlew Trust, a charity enabling biodiversity
through the planting of 18,000 hardwood trees and
the reintroduction of The Golden Eagle, Red Kite
and White-Tailed Eagle into all extinct areas, which
CarTrawler will be supporting though annual donations
to the charity
The company has also appointed Audrey Myles as its
Environmental Officer charged with ensuring that
the four "Rs" - Reduce, Reuse, Repair and Recycle
- are upheld and that new Green initiatives are
at the forefront of CarTrawler's agenda.
"CarTrawler has long been involved with a number
of environmental charities and organisations, and
supports the reduction of CO2 emissions through
conservation projects, so a formal CSR policy is
a natural step for us" comments Audrey Myles. "We
are therefore delighted to launch it with the announcement
of our partnership with The Curlew Trust.
"It has always been our opinion that travel
companies need to consider their carbon footprint
keenly, actively seeking ways to work in harmony
with the environment. As a company involved in travel
distribution car rental this is even more relevant
to us and we are keen to have a proactive environmental
position."
About CarTrawler™:
CarTrawler™ is a next generation global car
rental distribution system, enabling partners to
access pricing, availability and bookings from over
450 car rental suppliers globally in real-time,
from within their existing sites. By integrating
CarTrawler technology into booking engines it facilitates
the dynamic cross-selling of car rental on airline
websites - a high yield, uncomplicated product |
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CarTrawler™
Sponsors Guinness Store House Travel Event
CarTrawler is co-hosting the evening reception for
the Eye for Travel Ancillary Revenue in Travel event
in the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin on the evening
of Wednesday 20 February 2008.
The evening reception will round-off the events
of the Eye for Travel Ancillary Revenue in Travel
event which is due to take place at Clontarf Castle,
Dublin on Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st February
2008. CarTrawler will be running a workshop at the
event on merchandising the direct channel alongside
fellow sponsor, Datalex.
CarTrawler and Datalex enable industry 'first-movers'
to drive new ancillary business models. During their
joint workshop they will demonstrate how best to
merchandise the direct channel, integrate ancillary
products and services into the booking path and
ensure relevance of these offerings to the online
consumer.
For more information regarding joining us for this
event please contact
us.
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CarTrawler™
scoops Innovation Award
CarTrawler™ is delighted to have been awarded
the inaugural ‘Innovation Award' at the Travel
Technology Show 2008 hosted at Earls Court, London.
The car rental distribution company scooped the
award, voted for by show attendees, which recognises
innovation, ingenuity and true leadership in the
travel technology industry.
"We are absolutely delighted to win this award
as innovation is and will continue to be fundamental
to the success of our product." said CEO Greg Turley
on learning of the win. "We faced some stiff competition,
but in the end we are pleased that show attendees
recognised our product as groundbreaking, flexible
and a source of revenue generation for the travel
industry." CarTrawler is a next generation
global car rental distribution system, enabling
customers to access real-time pricing, availability
and bookings from 450 car hire suppliers in 134
countries, from within their existing sites. By
integrating its technology into booking engines
CarTrawler facilitates the dynamic cross-selling
of car rental, a high yield, uncomplicated product
into Airline, Hotel, OTAs, and National Tourism
Organisations & Travel Agency Call Centres across
all customer touch-points.
This award follows other awards for Cartrawler.
Greg Turley was recently listed as one of the Top
50 travel "Power Players" by Travolution Magazine;
and on launching Cartrawler, was nominated for the
Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in
2005.
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Fiona Belton CarTrawler
sales executive accepts the inaugural 'Innovation
Award' at the Travel Technology Show 2008 at Earls
Court, London
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Enterprise
Rent-A-Car signs distribution agreement with CarTrawler™
Dublin, February 5, 2008. World leading
car rental distribution system CarTrawler™
has signed a distribution agreement with North America's
largest car rental firm, Enterprise
Rent-A-Car. The agreement is good for Enterprise
airport locations in North America.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car is the latest major car rental
brand to join the CarTrawler family. With the addition
of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, CarTrawler now has 450
car Rental suppliers in 134 countries uploaded onto
its system.
By signing the deal with CarTrawler, Enterprise
Rent-A-Car will gain access to the world's premier
car rental global distribution system, and the world's
largest global network of online car hire providers.
CarTrawler focuses on dynamic cross-selling of car
rental at a number of key selling points, leading
to increased ancillary revenues for third party
partners and increased sales for car rental companies
globally. CarTrawler guarantees global distribution
of content to airlines, national tourism organizations,
tour operators, lodgings, travel agent desktops,
and online travel agents.
"The addition of Enterprise to our global distribution
system is an important one," said Greg Turley,
CEO of CarTrawler. "Not only is Enterprise a
global brand as well as being North America's leading
rental car company, it is a recognized ethical and
socially responsible company and regularly awarded
for its customer service and employment initiatives."
"In January this year Enterprise launched a
customer carbon offset program in the U.S. and Canada,"
Turley continued. "Customers can opt into the
program at participating Enterprise locations, and
the company will match customer offset purchases
dollar for dollar up to $1 million. As we have also
recently launched our CSR and carbon offsetting
plans, this is a company with which we are proud
to partner."
About CarTrawler™:
CarTrawler™ is a next generation global car
rental distribution system, now serving over 95
international airlines and over 1,500 online partners,
enabling its customers to access pricing, availability
and bookings from over 450 car hire suppliers in
134 Countries globally in real-time, from within
their existing sites. By integrating CarTrawler
technology into booking engines CarTrawler facilitates
the dynamic cross-selling of car rental a high yield,
uncomplicated product - into Airline, Hotel, Online
Travel Agents (OTA's), National Tourism Organisation
& Travel Agency Call Centers across all customer
touch-points.
About Enterprise Rent-A-Car:
Founded in 1957 by Jack Taylor, Enterprise Rent-A-Car
is headquartered in St Louis and serves customers
in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland and Germany.
Enterprise is North America's largest car rental
company in fleet size, number of locations and annual
revenue, ranking No. 21 on the Forbes Top 500 Private
Companies in America. Enterprise has ranked highest
in customer satisfaction among airport rentals in
eight out the past nine years, according to J.D,
Power and Associates Car Satisfaction StudySM. For
more information about Enterprise, visit
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CarTrawler™
signs first major travel group partner
Dublin, 21st January 2008
The Club Travel Group (www.clubtravel.co.za),
South Africa's largest Independent Travel Group
(and recently voted Africa's leading Travel Agency
at the World Travel Awards) today signed a strategic
three year partnership agreement with world leading
car rental distribution company CarTrawler (www.cartrawler.com)
for global car rental . The project, which is CarTrawler's
first in Africa, is set to go live March 2008.
The agreement confirms CarTrawler as the major supplier
of car rental to Africa's first online Travel Portal,
which is soon to be launched in South Africa by
The Club Group. By seamlessly integrating The Club
Group's online Portal and its own system, CarTrawler
will be supplying dynamic, real-time direct connection
to over 450 car rental suppliers in 134 countries
around the world, with multi-lingual capability
(currently live in 26 languages)
In addition to providing car rental content to The
Club Travel Group's online customers, the three
year deal also confirms CarTrawler as a preferred
partner to the Club Group's traditional business
which comprises 20 Club Travel offices, 64 Non Branded
IATA Travel Agencies and over 80 Independent Travel
Consultants.
"This is an important partnership for us,"
comments Greg Turley, CEO of CarTrawler. "The
Club Group is a major travel company and a critical
player in Africa. This agreement puts us at the
vanguard of a key growth market for travel, and
will enable us to once again demonstrate the flexibility
of our technology and the real revenues that can
be gained by making car rental an obvious choice
in the booking process."
Wally Gaynor Club's MD commented "We are extremely
excited with the agreement with Car Trawler, as
we view them as the world's leading car rental distribution
system. We were looking to partner with the best
and believe we found this with in CarTrawler"
About CarTrawler™:
CarTrawler™ is a next generation global car
rental distribution system, enabling partners to
access pricing, availability and bookings from over
450 car rental suppliers globally in real-time,
from within their existing sites. By integrating
CarTrawler technology into booking engines it facilitates
the dynamic cross-selling of car rental - a high
yield, uncomplicated product.
About Club Travel:
Club Travel was established in July 1987 by Wally
Gaynor. Wally's philosophy was to always give the
client the best deal and this philosophy is still
the driving force behind Club Travel today. The
company has grown from a single branch to 8 fully
owned Branches, 5 Corporate offices, 65 Franchises
of which 10 are branded and 55 non-branded as well
as 102 Independent consultants. Club Travel is currently
the largest independently owned travel agency in
South Africa.
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CarTrawler™
signs strategic car rental agreement with Blue1
Helsinki, 14 December 2007. CarTrawler™,
the global leader in car rental technology and distribution
solutions for the airline industry, today announced
the signing of an exclusive agreement with Nordic
carrier Blue1 to power the Regional Star Alliance
member's international websites with its multi-supplier
car rental solution. CarTrawler will complete integration
of its solution across Blue1.com's network of sites
by the end of the year.
CarTrawler's existing airline customer base already
reaches in excess of 100 million passengers annually.
The addition of Blue1 ensures that CarTrawler will
remain the worldwide number one provider of multi-supplier
car rental to airlines. After LOT Polish Airlines,
Blue1 is the second Star Alliance airline to implement
the CarTrawler system
Under the agreement, CarTrawler will exclusively
distribute inventory from all major suppliers of
car rental across Blue1's route map (covering 24
cities in 13 countries across Europe). With 450
car rental suppliers in 134 countries around the
world on its system, CarTrawler will ensure that
Blue1 offers comprehensive choice to their consumers
with increased availability in each destination
"Through our existing airline partnerships we have
now proven that using multiple car rental companies
on an airline website drives a superior ancillary
revenue stream over that of a single, restricted
supplier offering. We are delighted that Blue1 shares
our vision for this consumer friendly paradigm,"
comments Bobby Healy, CTO CarTrawler.
At the signing, Tuija Hyvarinen, VP Private &
Leisure Sales, of Blue1 stated "As a regional member
of Star Alliance, we are constantly seeking ways
to improve the seamless travel experience for our
passengers. Allowing our passengers to rent a car
throughout our entire network, with all of the major
branded car hire companies, and as part of the booking
process is a logical and important extension of
this service".
About Blue1:
Blue1 has been a Finnish SAS Group airline since
1998. In a short time only, Blue1 has reached a
stable market position both in Finland and internationally
operating on both domestic routes within Finland
and on routes to Scandinavia and the rest of Europe.
Blue1 flies directly from Helsinki to all Scandinavian
hubs: Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen. Additionally,
Blue1 fly to many international European destinations,
including London, Paris, Zurich and Milan. From
the Scandinavian hubs, there are numerous connections
to Europe, USA and to the Far East. Blue1 carries
passengers on 120 daily flights and will have close
to 2 million passengers in 2007.
About CarTrawler™:
CarTrawler™ is a next generation global car
rental distribution system, enabling partners to
access pricing, availability and bookings from over
450 car rental suppliers globally in real-time,
from within their existing sites. By integrating
CarTrawler technology into booking engines it facilitates
the dynamic cross-selling of car rental on airline
websites - a high yield, uncomplicated product.
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26 Language
Roll-Out Tip of the Iceberg for CarTrawler Global
Presence, London, 9th November 2007
CarTrawler,
the global car rental distribution system for the
travel industry, is flexing its international muscle
with 26 languages live on its AJAX based booking engine.
With the global car rental market growing (predicted
to hit $48 billion by the end of 2010*) CarTrawler
is the world's car rental distribution partner of
choice.
CarTrawler is committed to providing the best and
widest selection of car rental content available today.
It offers real time access to car rental availability
with seamless integration into its partners' websites
(including airlines, online travel agents, tourist
offices, and hotel booking sites) and increases their
ancillary revenues on an uncomplicated, yet high margin
product. CarTrawler estimates that booking conversions
can increase by 75% when the language is localised,
so it is crucial for CarTrawler to offer translated
content on demand.
Currently live with 26 languages, CarTrawler will
add further translations as they enter new markets.
This backs up CarTrawler's status as a true global
player. With over 450 car rental companies, at 12,000
locations in 134 countries around the world, the organisation
has more global reach and choice than any other car
rental distribution company today.
Core tourist markets such as Western Europe, North
and South America and Japan are all already covered.
However, the growth in car rental in Central and Eastern
Europe is evident, with translations offered in Polish,
Hungarian and Romanian. CarTrawler will continue to
be at the cutting edge of these growth markets, providing
fully integrated and translated content as new countries
come into play. With Asia still in relative car rental
infancy, the growth potential is huge.
"We have already proven we have the widest selection
of content around the world, including such key countries
as UK, France, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the US*.
Our language roll-out is further proof that we provide
the best solution for our partners and their customers,"
comments Greg Turley, CEO CarTrawler.
"We have built an architecture which supports the
needs of our suppliers and our partners. Whether it
is real-time direct connect availability, ability
to fully customise and self-brand, provision of yield
management capabilities or to offer content in a host
of languages, we can rapidly and seamlessly roll out
the right solution."
"We will be using
the international stage of WTM to reach as many new
suppliers and partners as possible, and I can think
of nowhere more fitting to launch the full reach of
our multilingual capability."
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CarTrawler signs
key agreement with VisitBritain, London, 1st October
2007
- Tourist Board Portals critical target in CarTrawler's
growth strategy-
CarTrawler
has today announced a three year partnership to become
the sole car rental distribution partner for national
tourism agency, VisitBritain. It will offer car rental
to the 20 million visitors on the 46 www.visitbritain.com
websites in 26 languages around the globe and on the
domestic site, www.enjoyengland.com.
This is the first such agreement CarTrawler has made
with a tourist board and focuses on a new route to
market for the rapidly growing technology company.
CarTrawler is a global car rental distribution system,
enabling partners to access pricing, availability
and bookings from over 450 car rental suppliers globally
in real-time, from within their existing sites. By
integrating CarTrawler technology into booking engines
it facilitates the dynamic cross-selling of car rental
- a high yield, uncomplicated product.
CarTrawler is the latest partner to offer facilities
for international and British consumers to search
for and book with suppliers of flights, train journeys,
taxis and now car rental. It furthers VisitBritain's
ambition to drive business success for the country's
85 billion visitor economy ahead of the 2012 Olympic
Games.
11% or 3.6 million overseas visitors use a rental
car in the UK. The partnership means that many more
of them, as well as British travelers, will be able
to rely on visitbritain.com and enjoyengland.com as
a single source of tourist information.
CarTrawler's offering will be in a stand alone Metasearch
format as well as a dynamic cross sell model alongside
the other VisitBritain products. Visitors will be
able to book car rental in both the "book and buy"
and "travel and transport" sections of the websites.
CarTrawler's Gregory Turley, Chief Executive Officer,
comments: "This deal with VisitBritain is a very exciting
one for us, and highlights a new strategy in our growth
- we are actively looking to work with tourist boards
across the globe. VisitBritain.com is clearly an example
of an excellent site; its reach is in excess of 20
million users, giving us access to a phenomenal new
distribution channel, and enabling us to demonstrate
the breadth and reach of or content and the capability
of our technology.
"In this deal we
have demonstrated how the CarTrawler platform seamlessly
connects with VisitBritian's, is flexible enough to
drill down to provide in-country car rental only and
is simple and easy to translate into more than 25
languages. We are proud to be a chosen VisitBritain
partner in the roll out of its new website,"
Colin Simonds, general manager of commercial operations
for VisitBritain comments: "Millions of potential
visitors rely on our websites to plan their trips
to and around this country. Through partnerships such
as this, we aim to provide them with the best experience
possible and give them the reassurance of booking
through a trusted source. The size of our network
in the UK and overseas, and the sheer volume of people
using our websites, means that we can forge strong
partnerships to benefit the tourism industry.
"Self-drive holidays are an important holiday
option for many visitors and our agreement with CarTrawler
is critical in ensuring that they can choose from
the most comprehensive car rental options available
today."
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SITA and CarTrawler
form alliance to boost airline car rental revenue
in 134 countries, London, 23rd July 2007
SITA and
CarTrawler™
today signed an agreement to integrate CarTrawler's
car rental distribution platform within the SITA Horizon
portfolio of passenger management solutions used by
over 100 airlines worldwide.
The CarTrawler platform enables its partners to supply
car rental in 134 countries at over 12,000 car rental
locations across the world. The deal allows SITA to
offer the CarTrawler solution to its airline customers,
enabling them to realise significant revenue growth
through ancillary car rental sales.
SITA's Horizon platform is used by over 100 airlines,
flying over 110 million passengers annually, and is
the world's most popular neutral, multi-host passenger
reservations and management information system.
The deal demonstrates that SITA can provide value
to its airline customers, well beyond the traditional
passenger management function, and reinforces SITA's
commitment to generating value and additional revenue
for those customers. Typically over 4% of all airline
passengers will rent a car if offered by the airline
on the airline website.
Richard Stokes, SITA Senior Vice-President for Passenger
and Travel Solutions, said, "This agreement complements
SITA's E-Commerce strategy, and echoes what our customers
- and the market - have been telling us: that car
rental is a hugely important source of ancillary revenue
for airlines.
"CarTrawler is the first
offering we have seen that matches our own standards
of technology and delivery. Its platform and worldwide
coverage ensures that our airline customers will reap
the best possible rewards, and their passengers will
get access to the best car rental rates available."
CarTrawler's Gillian Costello, Director of Operations,
added, "We are very much looking forward to helping
all of SITA's customers realise a major portion of
their ancillary sales growth through our car rental
platform. We have seen a number of leading edge innovations
from SITA in recent years and are proud to be involved
in helping them remain a leader in the airline industry."
About SITA:
SITA is the world's leading service provider of integrated
IT business solutions and communication services for
the air transport industry. SITA manages complex communication
solutions for its air transport, government and GDS
customers over the world's most extensive communication
network, complemented by consultancy in the design,
deployment and integration of communication services.
Its broad range of airline and airport IT applications
and services includes airport operations and integrated
baggage services, common use and desktop services,
flight operations and air-to-ground communications
and end-to-end airline distribution and fares services.
SITA has two main subsidiaries: OnAir, which is leading
the race to bring in-flight mobile telephony to the
market, and CHAMP Cargosystems, the world's only IT
company solely dedicated to air cargo. SITA also operates
two joint ventures providing services to the air transport
community: Aviareto for aircraft asset management
and CertiPath for secure electronic identity management.
In addition, SITA sponsors .aero, the Internet top
level domain reserved exclusively for aviation.
SITA covers 220 countries and territories and the
head office is in Geneva, Switzerland. SITA had consolidated
revenues of US$1.481 billion (€ 1.194 billion)
in 2006.
Further information can be found at www.sita.aero
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VLM Airlines
Appoints CarTrawler™ for strategic Car Hire
distribution agreement, 15th May 2007
VLM Airlines and CarTrawler, the worlds fastest growing
car rental distribution system, have signed a 3 year
agreement enabling the European airline to offer a
dynamically packaged and standalone car rental offering
for visitors to www.flyvlm.com. Under the agreement
VLM Airlines will use the CarTrawler™ distribution
system to retrieve real-time inventory and pricing
from major car hire suppliers in over 134 countries
worldwide including all destinations serviced by VLM
Airlines.
Uniquely, the CarTrawler™ technology provides
the airline a real-time feed directly into the inventories
of the top car rental companies - guaranteeing an
unsurpassed level of availability and pricing to the
users of www.flyvlm.com. The new system runs alongside
the airline's existing SITA supplied E-Commerce Platform.
Commenting on the agreement, Bobby Healy CTO of CarTrawler
said "because www.flyvlm.com has been built to the
highest technological standards, integrating the CarTrawler
OTA XML based feed for car hire has been a small task.
VLM Airlines are up and running with a significant
incremental source of revenue within weeks."
Mr Rony Timmermans Executive Director Finance &
Commerce of VLM Airlines said "We are delighted to
once more lead the pack and choose a multi-supplier
car hire solution that provides our customers with
the best choice and best value, incorporating all
the major car hire brands into our offer. With a route
map as diverse as VLM Airlines, it was essential to
have a multi-supplier offering, and the ease of integration
into our selling process was a key factor in choosing
CarTrawler."
About VLM Airlines:
VLM Airlines started its activities in 1993 and offers
on weekdays more than 100 flights to and from London
City Airport, more than any other airline company.
Destinations include Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels,
Groningen, Isle of Man, Jersey, Liverpool, Luxemburg,
Manchester and Rotterdam. There are also daily flights
between Antwerp and Manchester, between Rotterdam
and Hamburg, between Rotterdam and Manchester, and
between Amsterdam and Groningen. During the summer,
flights are offered from Rotterdam to the Channel
Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. VLM Airlines also
organises charter flights to various European destinations.
In 2006 the company recorded its ninth consecutive
year of profitability. VLM Airlines currently employs
over 425 people. In 2006 the number of passengers
on VLM Airlines' flights rose by 9% compared to 2005
to 682,000 passengers.
In January 2006, VLM Airlines was named Regional Airline
of the Year by Air Transport World magazine.
For further information and reservations please visit
www.flyvlm.com
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CarTrawler launches
world's first Realtime Car Rental Booking Engine,
9th April 2007
First solution to make a booking guaranteed immediately
on car rental suppliers own inventory system
Representing another world first, CarTrawler™,
the next generation global car rental distribution
system, has today announced that it has switched on
its latest 'Direct Connect' technology for all its
airline, consumer and business partner web sites.
The new technology means that customers using CarTrawler's
AJAX booking engine will be able to retrieve pricing,
availability and also confirm bookings as close to
one hour before pickup time. This marks the first
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