Topaz International has conducted a new study on low fare-search comparison between
the KDS solution and four online booking sites in Europe: Opodo, Expedia,
Travelocity and Lastminute.

In this study, two advance-purchase patterns were replicated for booking travel; one
week in advance of departure and three weeks in advance of departure.  Forty-one
popular city-pairs originating in Europe were reviewed (including the top 20
traveled city-pairs in Europe, according to the 2004 Association of European
Airlines report).

KDS proved to be better than the others by returning the best fare in 55% of
attempts on intra-European city-pairs and in 45% of attempts for all the city-pairs.
In addition, when analyzing the results within $10 of the lowest fare found, KDS
offers the best solution almost 60% of the time. KDS’s low-fare findings, produces
average savings from 8.3% to 23.4%, compared to the other benchmarked sites.

 

The study also shows that KDS fare-search engine is the only one that is able to
book on all city-pairs studied, 100% of the time. 

 

“Thanks to its ability to deliver the best fares for online bookings on a rich
choice of business flights, KDS is an excellent solution for corporations that are
aiming to buy at the best price in Europe. The conclusions of this new study confirm
the results of the previous one done by Topaz last spring (2004), where KDS’s
leadership was demonstrated in front of major online booking sites in the USA, on 30
major North American city-pairs.” states Jean-François Vergnangeal, KDS Senior VP
Marketing & Alliances.

 

 

 

On intra-European travel (62 city-pair attempts), KDS returned the lowest fare
54.84% of the time, with Opodo following at 25.64%.  When comparing performance with
the advance-purchase parameter, KDS found the lowest fare 61.29% of the time (19 out
of 31 city-pair attempts) when booking one week before the trip.  For the three-week
advance purchase criteria, KDS found the lowest fare 51.61% of the time (16 out of
31 city-pair attempts).

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