Galileo International

announced today that Virgin Holidays has chosen Galileo International as its booking system as part of the roll out of a more efficient booking process for its recently launched worldwide programme.

In the past, Virgin Holidays` in-house booking system has been used to book flights with sister company Virgin Atlantic only. Its new worldwide programme, which offers a broader range of destinations than before, utilises the services of other trusted scheduled airlines. This created the need for a GDS, and after a thorough evaluation of the market,
Virgin Holidays

chose Galileo, with whom they have signed a three-year contract.

“Galileo is a proven market leader, and our work with them will mean we are able to offer the best possible service to our customers,” said Susan Forde, Product and Commercial Director, Virgin Holidays. “We chose Galileo because of their excellent technological solutions and because it was paramount to us that the chosen GDS system be compatible with our own.”

The tour operator will be using Galileo Focalpoint(tm) platform and Viewpoint(tm) graphical user interface, enabling them to compete on a worldwide level, especially following the launch of their new travel brochure and their expansion into the USA.

“We are very excited to work with Virgin Holidays.  Their worldwide programme is a big development and challenge for them and we are proud to be the GDS working with them through this exiting change,” said Pat Minogue

, general manager of Galileo UK. “Their choice of GDS shows confidence in Galileo`s strategy, products and service, and we look forward to working closely with them.”

Related stories on ITN:

(03/12/2002) Galileo Re-signs Travelpack Marketing & Leisure

(28/11/2002) Galileo International Appoints Pan-European Specialist

(27/11/2002) Galileo and AgentWare Team to Provide WebPoint

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