Byrail, the online booking
tool developed by Eurostar

for business travellers, and KDS, a leading
provider of global business travel management solutions, announce that
Byrail has chosen KDS as its first business travel online reservation
partner. 
By selecting KDS

, Byrail has now put in place the first direct
link to its travel information sources and databases for booking both
Eurostar trains and National UK Rail trains.

The major benefits for customers of this collaboration is KDS`s ability to
display and book both train and flight schedules, availabilities and fares
on the same screen in its online reservation systems.

Thus, this strategic partnership guarantees the following unique capacities:

* They can book train tickets online as easily as flights, hotel rooms
and cars.

* Corporations manage their travel bookings online more efficiently.

* Business travellers have a real choice between train and plane.

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With this agreement, Byrail provides a wider choice of business solutions to
corporations with its direct Internet booking solution specialized in
trains, on one hand, and KDS Solutions for multi-segment bookings including
trains, on the other.
With KDS, it is a potential volume of 100,000 business travellers throughout
Europe who will be able to book their Eurostar and UK train tickets online
directly.

This partnership also includes a marketing and sales agreement whereby
Byrail and KDS will develop and generate new common business opportunities
towards large companies.

“European corporations are increasingly relying on online reservation
systems to manage their business travel, that`s why we, at Byrail, have
chosen to team up with KDS, an industry-recognized leader, to provide our
customers with this online added value,” said Charles Fenton , General
Manager ByRail.
“Our new partnership with Byrail highlights KDS`s capacity to operate an
international solution and confirms our willingness to bring our customers
greater freedom of choice among travel suppliers with the best-of-breed
technologies and solutions. With this new agreement, KDS remains a length
ahead in the market of direct links to travel product suppliers,” explains
Jean-François Vergnangeal, VP Marketing and Strategic Alliances KDS.

Market leader on London-Paris and London-Brussels routes, with 63% of the
London-Paris market and around 45% of the London-Brussels route, Eurostar
carries over seven million passengers a year.

KDS provides global online business travel management solutions. KDS
Corporate, KDS`s solution dedicated to large international enterprises,
automates business travel processes and enables travellers to plan and book
trips online in order to ensure cost reductions. KDS Portal, KDS`s solution
dedicated to business travel services providers, is built to facilitate
time-to-market delivery of managed business travel solutions for SME market.
The first version of the direct link between Eurostar/ByRail and KDS will be
available with the next major version of KDS Corporate delivered to market
Q1 2003.
Related stories on ITN:
KDS Delivers Online Rail Booking for Business Travelers

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