Dolphin signs STA Travel

STA Travel is the latest Dolphin Dynamics customer to implement its airfare search engine, FlightScanner. The student and youth travel agency has taken FlightScanner Enterprise, which will enable it to search fares from traditional schedule carriers, no-frills carriers and web fares. STA has also taken Dolphin’s data capture and web reporting tools. This enables STA to track the productivity of its 350 UK staff, and allows branch managers to monitor the performance of individual consultants, as well as adopt an automated supplier payment process. Dolphin says the tool will be useful for STA because the low cost market is key for students. Dolphin Dynamics President, Roberto Da Re said: “This demonstrates that the trend towards using the internet to search and book flights has matured and is becoming part of the standard business practice alongside traditional published and net fares sold via the GDS.” According to Dolphin, 5,000 agents have registered for FlightScanner since it launched in April 2002. In a statement the company said: “With more travel agents charging transaction fees, being able to quickly find and book a web fare is fundamental to their profitability and is a service that their customers expect, just as happens with traditional carriers available in the GDS.”