Galileo International to Distribute Thailand's Phuket Air via Interactive Sell

Galileo International, a leading global distribution services company has reached an agreement with Thailand's Phuket Air to distribute its services to Galileo-powered travel agencies. Phuket Air was established as a domestic airline in 2001, but has recently started flight operations to Mandalay in Myanmar.

Phuket Air is to participate in Galileo at its Interactive Sell™ level, the highest level which directly assists the sell process. The primary benefit of Interactive Sell to travel agents is that it allows them to provide real-time bookings to their customers and offer instant confirmations. Additionally, the airline provides its own reference number to agents to guarantee bookings. The main benefit to  airlines is that Interactive Sell enhances yield management by giving them the opportunity to sell every last seat on a flight.

Janie Kaung, executive vice president and managing director of Galileo's Asia Pacific region, said: "This is an excellent example of how a truly worldwide distributor like Galileo can play a key role in extending an airline's market reach and we are delighted to be working with Phuket Air in this regard. The airline's route structure was initially domestic-focused and included Bangkok, Ranong, Krabi and Phuket. A routing to Mandalay represented its first foray into international markets. Phuket Air now has aggressive plans to expand its services to other countries - within Asia and beyond. With Galileo's travel agency network currently extending to 47,000 agency locations in 115 countries, Galileo will provide the required global distribution to Phuket Air. We are ideally positioned to give their brand the exposure at travel agencies in all their targeted markets."

Ms Kavida Aisiri, Phuket Air's Director of Marketing, said: "Galileo will benefit us in three key ways. They will play a significant role in enhancing reservation efficiency, enable us to maximise sales from potential last-minute bookings, and expand our customer base across Europe, America and the Asia-Pacific region. We look forward to building a close relationship with the leading GDS in the Asia Pacific."