Travelport and Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV), the first Italian private high-speed railway company, have signed a strategic partnership for the distribution of NTV rail services to Galileo-connected travel agencies worldwide.

With this ground-breaking agreement, travel agents (initially in Italy) will be able to book the innovative Italo rail services for their travellers, directly within Travelport Smartpoint App which also supports commands from any GDS and reduces keystrokes for an overall booking by 15 per cent.

“To be successful with our new high-speed rail service we need a strong relationship with travel agents,” said Giuseppe Bonollo, NTV’s sales and services director.

“We are building that strong relationship with the support of a technology and distribution partner that is able to provide significant value during our start-up phase.

“We chose to partner with Travelport, as they are proven to be able to provide travel suppliers with a crucial distribution channel for the Italian market as well as worldwide.”

Through Italo, NTV connects nine Italian cities and 12 railway stations with 50 journeys each day.

This provides up to 12 million train kilometres per year.