Travelport increases African Footprint

Travelport has signed a new 16-country distributor agreement with Dubai-based Satguru Travel & Tourism, Africa’s largest travel company outside of South Africa. The GDS provider will grow its African network from 27 to 41 countries and grow its existing GDS operations in a further two.

 The strategic partnership is in line with Travelport’s ongoing strategy to invest and grow in the fast-growing African continent, and it takes effect immediately.

 Under the agreement, Satguru will set up operations and run the National Distributor Centres for Travelport in the following countries: Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Southern Sudan and Togo.

In the countries where Satguru is not the Travelport distributor, a subscriber agreement has been signed, which includes 11 African countries, plus Afghanistan, India, the UAE and Yemen.

Travelport will also offer customers a number of Satguru’s industry-leading e-commerce applications, as part of the deal.  

Last year, flight bookings made through the GDS channel in Africa increased by 7.7% and the trend looks set to continue as economists predict that the average GDP across the continent will increase by 4.7% in 2012 and 5.7% in 2013.