Webjet Acquires CDN Travel Tech Company, Trip Ninja
Webjet Limited has agreed to acquire a Canadian based travel technology company, Trip Ninja, which has developed several key products for traditional and online travel agencies to automate the highly manual process of selling complex international itineraries.
FareStructure is a technology that automates the combining of fares from carriers that do not have a cooperation or codeshare agreement in order to give customers the best priced itinerary. Traditionally this has been a fairly manual process, however, Trip Ninja is able to produce these results in seconds. For traditional travel agents, FareStructure can make a junior travel agent as productive as a seasoned veteran and it gives the OTA industry the ability to create complex itineraries using non-aligned carriers in an automated way.
FlexTrip is the automated re-ordering of a multi-stop itinerary to deliver a better price. Used in combination, FareStructure and FlexTrip give the travel industry the ability to show the consumer pricing options that could only ever be surfaced manually by a very experienced travel agent.
Both Fare Structure and FlexTrip are available via web interface, QuickTrip, and via API.
As well, Trip Ninja has two other products under development that further automate fare search tasks that are currently done manually – Virtual Interlining (combining non-aligned carriers in a point-to-point fare), and Multi-stop dynamic packaging (combining air and hotels for multi-destination holidays).
Webjet Limited’s managing director, John Guscic said: “We see significant growth opportunities for the Webjet OTA business as international travel starts to return. Traditionally, in a multi-stop trip, we were only able to combine airfares from carriers with codeshare agreements, however the Trip Ninja technology now gives us the ability to create complex itineraries combining non-aligned carriers in order to provide our customers the best price.”
Guscic continued: “Webjet has always been focused on offering our customers the greatest convenience and choice and we believe this helps us do exactly that. Pricing comparisons using the products have shown material price reductions compared to existing pricing and will allow us to provide a genuine price advantage for our customers. We believe it will play a key role in helping grow our share of the international flights market.”
And he added: “We are excited to have been able to acquire such an innovative business and are delighted the founders are staying on to realise their vision of automating the most complex areas of travel.”
Webjet intends to implement the Trip Ninja products into the Webjet OTA, as well as sell the products to other travel industry participants globally.
Trip Ninja was founded in 2015 by Andres Collart and Brett Ziegler and launched in 2017. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated travel restrictions, Trip Ninja was preparing to cease trading and had announced its plans when it entered discussions with Webjet.
At the time Trip Ninja had both FareStructure and FlexTrip, and the dynamic pricing/revenue management module that provides markup facilities, fully functional and in use with a number of agencies. Both Collart and Ziegler will remain with Trip Ninja post acquisition.
Webjet Limited (ASX: WEB) is an ASX 200 listed company operating a digital travel business spanning both wholesale (through B2B) and consumer (through B2C) markets.
The B2B travel business, WebBeds, is the world’s second largest and fastest growing accommodation supplier in the wholesale travel market. It operates globally through four regional divisions – Europe, Asia Pacific, MEA (Middle East and Africa) and the Americas. The B2C travel business operates Webjet, the market leading OTA brand in Australia and New Zealand, and GoSee which specialises in the provision of online car and motorhome bookings.
Go to www.webjetlimited.com for more.
