NEWLY launched travel website Opodo plans to break
into the package market, Travel Weekly can reveal.
Chief executive officer Giovanni Bisignani claims it
has signed agreements with several holiday suppliers and is ready to
start selling their products.
“The deals are done and we will expand into selling
the packages on-line very soon,” he said.
Opodo, a joint venture between Aer Lingus, Air France,
Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, KLM and
Lufthansa, was launched in the UK last week. So far it has restricted its
product range to car hire, hotels, flights, accommodation and travel insurance.
But selling packages will increase concern on the high
street that it may become the dominant market force, a feat achieved in the US
by a similar web operation called Orbitz.
Bisignani said: “I want to stress that we will always
offer agents aggressive but fair competition in the interests of the consumer.
“The on-line market in the UK is currently worth £1
billion and will be worth £6.25 billion by 2006. There is enormous scope for
growth.
“High-street agencies will have to put forward
consolidation strategies and upgrade their technological systems to compete,
but they will always find Opodo is a fair competitor,” he added.
Allaying fears the share-holding airlines would abuse
their ownership of Opodo to undercut other retailers, Bisignani said they act
as “financial investors” and do not get involved with negotiated fare deals or
the day-to-day management of the company.
The Opodo website has been kept simple to increase its
appeal to first-time web users and has been designed to appeal to both leisure
and business travellers.
It is backed up by a call
centre that employs former travel agents.