Air Transat has launched a trade booking portal to UK travel agents.
Through the portal, the Canadian airline is providing fare parity with existing online-only fares to the trade, along with an increased booking window so agents can book 18 months in advance.
It involves a commercial agreement with the carrier and gives access to book ancillary items “seamlessly”.
Adrian Keating, commercial director for the UK & Ireland at Air Transat, said: “The launch of our new trade portal diversifies our distribution, enabling us to offer the travel trade more choice in how they want to work with us. The portal will also deliver cost savings that we can then reinvest into our commercial agreements.”
Air Transat said the platform is designed for Canadian specialists, and small to medium sized agents.
Keating added: “We engaged with three Canadian specialist agents in a pre-launch test period, and their feedback has been valuable in ensuring the portal was built to cater for their requirements, with a seamless user experience and all of the content they need to serve their customers.
“We recognise the portal won’t be for everyone. Some of our larger agent partners will wish to maintain their existing distribution arrangements, but they will still benefit from a more lucrative commercial deal because of the savings the portal brings us. So the introduction of the portal is a positive development for all of our partners.”