A record-breaking January for fare shopping is being claimed by Travelport.
The travel technology company saw “unprecedented” year-on-year percentage increases in peak shopping rate messages per second and in overall 24-hour message volumes.
A 77% increase in peak shopping rate messages per second was recorded – the highest number of shopping messages processed during one second in any one day – compared to the highest similar peak day in January 2017.
For total shopping message volumes received during a single 24-hour period, Travelport recorded a 79% rise compared to the highest such single-day volume last January.
There was a 169% increase in peak shopping rate messages per second from the highest recorded day in January 2017 compared to the highest similar peak day in January the previous year.
For total shopping message volumes received during a single 24-hour period, Travelport saw a 161% increase compared to the highest such single-day volume in January 2016.
Travelport spent $700 million on its distribution platform between 2012 and 2016, claimed to be twice as much as its nearest competitor.
Executive vice president and global chief information officer Matt Minetola said: “Travelport’s strong surge in this January’s shopping messages is due to the growth in its business and confidence our customers, particularly online travel agencies, have that Travelport will consistently provide the industry’s most relevant, accurate and lowest-priced fares for travel.
“It has also been fuelled by the growth in metasearch and the continuing rise of mobile shopping.
“It also demonstrates the value of our strong and prudent investment in cloud computing, our infrastructure and in other technology improvements that allow us to successfully manage and speedily distribute tremendous volumes of accurate and relevant data through our world-class industrial-scale data processing capabilities.”
Minetola added: “This investment has allowed us to deliver this significant volume increase within the existing operating cost structure while driving response times for these transactions down to a level that is now seen by many of our customers as the industry benchmark for speed and accuracy.”