Telewest and X-TANT in MyTravel row

A row has broken out between Telewest and X-TANT over the MyTravel UK viewdata contract, a deal which Telewest claims has made it the “viewdata market leader.”

Telewest has signed a two-year agreement to provide Internet Protocol (IP) viewdata services to all MyTravel UK’s retail outlets including Going Places and TravelWorld. It claims to have won the contract from rival X-TANT last summer and to have just completed the migration.

But a spokesman for X-TANT claimed that the company had had the Going Places viewdata contract three years ago, but that since then the business had gone to Energis, with a gateway from Energis to X-TANT for viewdata services. The spokesman said: “X-TANT was not the incumbent supplier. Because Energis does not have direct access to tour operators there was a gateway to X-TANT for viewdata. But this was low margin for X-TANT who normally provide the whole service. Last August they decided to switch off the whole service because Energis had also developed a gateway into Telewest so X-TANT did not deem it to be viable anymore.”

However Telewest head of travel services Keith Webber said Telewest had won the deal from X-TANT. He told TravelMole: “Going Places was accessing X-TANT for viewdata and that is no longer the case. In terms of market share of viewdata traffic it is a substantial shift in market share to us. It started in late summer of last year and it has been a migration through to the full situation that we have today.”

Mr Webber added: “Until last summer any Going Places viewdata bookings made to anyone other than Airtours were exclusively delivered over X-TANT. It is a significant shift in market share which undoubtedly givers us the majority share. Going Places has an enormous market share in retail and that external share has shifted from X-TANT to us. We are the viewdata market leader.”

Telewest said the deal, which will see over 700 stores link in to the Telewest solution, also extends to MyTravel UK call centres covering the Go Direct, Late Escapes and Holidayline brands.

All MyTravel UK sites will have moved onto the Telewest solution by February. MyTravel UK telecommunications manager David Piggott said: ”This agreement represents a major strategic decision by MyTravel UK to invest in a key partnership with a major travel technology provider. Telewest has consistently shown a level of service reliability and technology development that has impressed us. We are delighted to be linking up with them in a partnership that will see them providing services to MyTravel UK businesses.”

Mr Webber added: “We are increasingly providing technology led value added services across our network to our business customers. In the Travel Industry we now support the majority of leading travel retailers including MyTravel, Travel Choice Retail, Thomas Cook, Travelcare and TV Travel Shop as well as over 1000 independent agents through the Endeavour IP platform.”

MyTravel UK is part of the Airtours plc group of companies. Airtours plc intends to change its name to MyTravel Group plc following its annual shareholder meeting on February 7.

See our previous stories:

28 Jan 2002: Energis in severe trouble after profit warning
23 Jan 2002: Standard for agency web bookings agreed
14 Jan 2002: Telewest ready to launch leisure GDS
27 Nov 2001: MyTravel new name for Airtours group