E-Commerce: Nine airlines to open travel portal

by Aoidin Scully

Nine major European airlines have signed an agreement to establish a new, independent, pan-European travel portal. Shareholders in the Online Travel Portal Limited are Aer Lingus, Air France, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, KLM and Lufthansa. The portal, which is to be launched next year, will offer a comprehensive range of flights to, from and within Europe, as well as complementary products and services for travellers. It aims to establish itself as quickly as the market leader, based primarily on the reassurance that customers are dealing with established and trusted brands.

However, the site could face similar problems to that of controversial US Web portal Orbitz.com, which is due to launch in June 2001. This joint venture between United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines, has led to an investigation by US authorities suspicious of anti-competitive practices. On the business-to-business side MyAircraft.com, an on-line exchange from Honeywell and United Technologies for aircraft spare parts and Engines, also drew anti-competition scrutiny, as did a rival consortium, backed by Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and BAE systems. Spokespersons for the Online Travel Portal Limited were unavailable for comment on Monday and could not say what company would be developing the technology for the site or whether it would involve Irish travel technology firm Datalex, which is providing root technology for Orbitz.com.

Describing itself as a "dot.corporation," the Online Travel Portal says it will combine the start-up culture of a dot.com backed by sound corporate values. The company has already begun a pan-European recruitment campaign, increasing its employee base by 60 people. It has also selected a site in London's West End for its European headquarters and expects to move in later this month. According to Forrester Research, travel is currently the largest on-line revenue sector in Europe and is forecast to grow from USD1.00 billion in 1999 to USD22.00 billion by 2003.