TRAVEL booking website Expedia has acquired online travel agency Travelocity for $280 million from Sabre Corporation.

“Travelocity is one of the most recognized travel brands in North America, offering thousands of travel destinations to more than 20 million travelers per month,” Expedia President and CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a news release.

Travelocity now joins a number of brands under Expedia’s website portfolio, including Hotels.com, Hotwire.com and CarRentals.com.

“Evolving this relationship strengthens the Expedia Inc family’s ability to continue to innovate and deliver the very best travel experiences to the widest set of travelers, all over the world,” Khosrowshahi said.

The merger follows an agreement made between the two entities in 2013 where Expedia boosted Travelocity’s websites in the US and Canada, while the latter company increased online traffic to Expedia.

Expedia said air ticket volumes rose 29 percent in the first three quarters of 2014 mainly due to its agreement with Travelocity, as well as other continuing enhancements for the various Brand Expedia websites.

“We have had a long and fruitful partnership with Expedia, most recently by partnering to strengthen the Travelocity business, so our decision to divest Travelocity is a logical next step for both of us,” Sabre Corporation CEO Tom Klein said in a statement.

Travelocity is likely to retain its brand under Expedia, said S&P Capital IQ analyst Tuna Amobi, according to Reuters.

Travelocity was launched in 1996 under Sabre Holdings and was the first website that allowed people to reserve and purchase airline tickets without a travel agent. In recent years, its growth rate declined and thousands of employees were cut.

The company is among a two recently sold by Sabre. Last month, the corporation sold Lastminute.com for $120 to Bravofly Rumbo Group, a Swiss online travel service.

(With reports from Forbes and Reuters)

(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek January 28-30, 2015 Sec. B pg.1)