Travelport, one of the leading Travel Commerce Platform has announced a new multi-year, global full content agreement with award winning South African low cost airline Mango. Launched in 2006, Mango has pioneered a number of service excellence innovations including being the only African airline to offer on board Wi-Fi and with the ability to accept different forms of payments including retail store charge cards. Mango connects seven leading cities in South Africa and also flies to Tanzania (Zanzibar).
Mango will now offer Travelport-connected agencies in 180 countries, servicing hundreds of millions of consumers around the world, real-time access to its fares and inventory-through the Travel Commerce Platform. Through the agreement, the airline’s fares and inventory will appear on agency screens on a fully integrated basis for both on-line and corporate travel agencies. Additionally, like other low cost carriers partnering with Travelport, Mango will use Travelport’s merchandising solution to effectively display its full range of products and services through the intermediary channels in the same way Mango’s content is displayed on its website. Approximately 160 airlines are now live on Travelport’s merchandising solution, which was recently enhanced to include the capability to support tailored offers to help drive additional revenues per seat. The merchandising solution’s rich imagery and visuals help illustrate and explain – with industry leading transparency – the various fare families, ancillaries or additional products an airline offers and what added value the airline provides for each price point.
Furthermore, the agreement will see Travelport provide technology services to Mango by hosting the airline’s electronic ticketing database in support of their content agreement. Mango flights will now be e-ticket eligible with their interline partners. This service will enable Mango to more easily sell its products on an integrated basis with Mango’s airline partners, which will be helpful when bringing business or leisure travellers into South Africa from overseas.
Nico Bezuidenhout, chief executive, Mango said, “The global full content agreement with Travelport is aligned with one of our core values; to continually embrace new technologies in pursuit of service excellence. Travelport’s technology provides the platform to promote Mango’s content to travel agents in an innovative manner that matches our ideal. As one of the leaders in global E-ticketing technologies, we look forward to further developing our business though our partnership with Travelport.”
Will Owen Hughes, Senior Director, Air Commerce, Travelport Africa and Middle East added, “We are delighted that Mango has recognised Travelport’s ability to offer travel agents visually rich and interactive content so they can market and sell more effectively to consumers who book through travel agencies both within South Africa but also around the globe, supporting this innovative airline to reach its value proposition. This partnership announcement is especially poignant as Mango celebrates the milestone this year of their decade anniversary in domestic aviation, having first commenced service in 2006.”
Sandeep Dwivedi, Chief Commercial Officer, ITQ, further said, “With more and more LCCs signing up with Travelport’s merchandising solutions it is becoming apparent how we are redefining travel commerce through unmatched technology. Today, process of booking and selling airline content has gone a step further. As technological innovators, we have understood the need of transparency, more enriched content and value addition parameters. With this new contract in place we are looking forward to exploring further opportunities with Mango.”
