The Travelocity.com site was slowed by as much as 30% yesterday, as a one-day price promotion was offered.
This promotion was offered in conjunction with Yahoo Travel and American Airlines. Fort Worth, Texas-based Travelocity said it prepared for a spike in traffic but was surprised by the sheer number of visitors it got.
Keynote Systems, which tracks Web site traffic, said Wednesday that downloading Travelocity`s home page took up to 25% longer than usual. The heavy traffic also hampered the site`s navigation—the amount of time it takes to turn Web pages—by as much as 30 percent, said Richard Pendergast, Travelocity`s vice president of systems.
Yesterday afternoon, American Airlines` site, AA.com, crashed. Although a message said the site was down “due to technical difficulties,” a spokesman said the company did not think it was related to the increased traffic from the sale.
A similar fares promotion offered by easyJet in the U.K. recently caused massive demand and many disappointed customers were unable to access the Web site.
www.travelocity.com
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