ATLANTA and BEIJING – Travelport, the business services provider to the global travel industry, and TravelSky Technology Limited, the leading provider of information technology solutions for China’s air travel and tourism industries, today announce an unprecedented joint product development agreement focused on advanced Passenger Service Systems technology for airlines worldwide. The first project under this agreement is a collaboration on a new and innovative Master Seat Maps module – which applies marketing and customer value to the physical seat characteristics of a given aircraft.

Teams expert in airline hosting and related technologies will work in the United States and China, enhancing the 15 year partner and customer relationship between the two companies.

“TravelSky has never before signed a development agreement of this magnitude with any GDS or airline vendor and as such it is a major milestone. It is a significant evolution in our longstanding technology partnership with Travelport, and it comes at a critical time for airlines worldwide,” said executive vice president Huang Yuan Chang of TravelSky. “By coupling the resources, expertise and global presence of our companies, we will be able to accelerate the delivery of highly relevant solutions like this for our customers in China and throughout the world. We are optimistic that this step forward with Travelport will lead to additional Passenger Service Systems co-development in the future.”

“Airlines are constantly looking for more effective IT solutions to meet new operational, customer service and industry requirements,” said Derek Sharp, president and managing director of Travelport’s Airline IT Solutions group. “Travelport and TravelSky are committed to developing this first module for our global airline clients to demonstrate how our technology solutions will allow airlines to evolve their business models going forward to compete more effectively in their respective regions around the globe.”