Tuesday, March 29, 2011

AirAsia ties-up with Expedia Inc to establish online travel agency

KUALA LUMPUR: AIRASIA BHD [] has entered into a joint venture (JV) agreement with US-based Expedia Inc to establish an online travel agency with three main brands namely, AirAsiaGo, GoRooms and Expedia.

AirAsia said on Tuesday, March 29 that the JV would be operated via a joint venture company to be equally owned by AirAsia and Expedia.

Nasdaq-listed Expedia, which is headquartered in Bellevue, Washingto is the largest online travel company in the world with an extensive brand portfolio.

AirAsia said the JV has the opportunity to become the market leading distributor of hotels and flight+hotel packages in Asia.

It said the JV would drive AirAsia powered flight+hotel packages through a leading network of AirAsia and Expedia-branded storefronts via a jointly owned entity which receives hotel content from Expedia and flight content from AirAsia.

The parties would also jointly market a stand-alone hotel-only brand, GoRooms to address that market segment in Asia.

The would achieve cost synergies through reduced cost of inventory via superior Expedia sourcing team and agreement, and reduced TECHNOLOGY [] spend by adopting Expedia's in-house solutions, it said.

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