Worldspan is a provider of travel

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

and content and a part of the

Travelport Travelport Worldwide Ltd provides distribution, technology, payment solutions for the travel and tourism industry. It is the smallest, by revenue, of the top three global distribution systems (GDS) after Amadeus IT Group and Sabre Corporation. ...

GDS business. It offers worldwide electronic distribution of travel information, Internet products and connectivity, and e-commerce capabilities for travel agencies, travel service providers and corporations. Its primary system is commonly known as a

Global Distribution System A global distribution system (GDS) is a computerised network system owned or operated by a company that enables transactions between travel industry service providers, mainly airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and travel agencies. The GDS ma ...

(GDS), which is used by travel agents and travel related websites to book airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, tour packages and associated products. Worldspan also hosts IT services and product solutions for major airlines.

Recent events

In December, 2006,

, owner of the

Galileo GDS Galileo is a computer reservations system (CRS) owned by Travelport. As of 2000, it had a 26.4% share of worldwide CRS airline bookings. In addition to airline reservations, the Galileo CRS is also used to book train travel, cruises, car rental, ...

, Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA) and a controlling share in

Orbitz Orbitz.com is a travel fare aggregator website and travel metasearch engine. The website is owned by Orbitz Worldwide, Inc., a subsidiary of Expedia Group. It is headquartered in the Citigroup Center, Chicago, Illinois. Background Origina ...

, agreed to acquire Worldspan. However, at the time, management of Travelport did not commit to the eventual merging of the two GDS systems, saying that they were considering all options, including running both systems in parallel. On August 21, 2007, the acquisition was completed for $1.4 billion and Worldspan became a part of Travelport GDS, which also includes Galileo and other related businesses. On September 28, 2008, the Galileo and Apollo GDS were moved from the Travelport datacenter in Denver, Colorado to the Worldspan datacenter in Atlanta, Georgia (although they continue to be run as separate systems from the Worldspan GDS). In 2012, Worldspan customers were migrated from the TPF-based FareSource pricing engine to Travelport's

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

-based 360 Fares pricing engine already used by Galileo and Apollo. Although the three systems share a common pricing platform, they continue to operate as separate GDS.

History

Worldspan was formed in early 1990 by

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc., typically referred to as Delta, is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier. One of the List of airlines by foundation date, world's oldest airlines in operation, Delta is headquartered in Atla ...

Northwest Airlines Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) was a major American airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines, Inc. by a merger. The merger, approved on October 29, 2008, made Delta the largest airline in the world until the American Airlines ...

, and

TWA Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with ...

to operate and sell its GDS services to

travel agencies A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel suppliers to offer different kinds of travelling packages for each destinatio ...

worldwide. Worldspan operated very effectively and profitably, successfully expanding its business in markets throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. As a result, in mid-2003, Worldspan was sold by its owner airlines to Citigroup Venture Capital and Ontario Teachers' Pension FundEU set to clear Travelport buy of Worldspan.
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Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'', July 31, 2007. Accessed November 20, 2007. which in turn sold the business to Travelport in 2007. Worldspan was formed in 1990 by combining the PARS partnerships companies (owned by TWA and Northwest Airlines, Inc.) and DATAS II, a division of Delta Air Lines, Inc. One of Worldspan’s predecessors – TWA PARS – became the first GDS to be installed in travel agencies in 1976. ABACUS, an Asian company owned by a number of Asian airlines, owned a small portion of Worldspan, and Worldspan owned a small portion of Abacus. Worldspan and Abacus entered into a series of business and technology relationships. These relationships were terminated after Abacus engaged in fraudulent and deceptive practices, for which Worldspan received a sizable judgement in an arbitration in London.

References

{{Reflist Airline tickets Travel technology Computer reservation systems

Recent events

History

See also

References