:: Travel Weekly - The National Newspaper of the Travel Industry ::THREE BIG NAMES IN TRAVEL DISTRIBUTION -- IAC Travel, Amadeus and Orbitz -- reported revenue growth and rising profits in the second quarter. Expedia and its corporate cousins sold $3.4 billion worth of travel in the period; Expedia accounted for $2.6 billion, the company said. At IAC Travel, which includes Expedia, Hotels.com and Hotwire, total revenue rose 34%, to $556 million. Operating income rose 46%, to $129 million. On the downside, the corporate parent's operating profit was flat at $110 million on revenue of $1.5 billion and corporate net income fell 25%, to $70 million. The company also scaled back its forecast. The initial reaction on Wall Street was disappointment, and the stock price plunged.
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ORBITZ SAID IT BOOSTED revenue 30%, to $75.6 million, in the second quarter and generated net income of $10.4 million, reversing a net loss of $2.9 million a year ago. Gross travel bookings rose 21% and topped $1 billion. Air revenue rose 12%, to $44.2 million, and all other travel revenue rose 96%, to $22 million. Orbitz's merchant hotel program is in the latter category and sold 327,000 room nights in the period, a 600% increase.
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AMADEUS ALSO HAD A GOOD QUARTER: Revenue rose 10.2%, to $620.9 million. Net income was up a much heftier 47.7%, to $68.8 million. Total bookings on Amadeus for the period rose 9.8% year over year to 114.7 million, with air bookings rising a little faster at 11.9% and hotels growing still faster at 16%. Revenue from supplier booking fees grew 10.4%, and nonbooking fee revenue, which is approximately 25% of the total, increased by 9.5%. The latter included a 54% hike in e-commerce revenue.
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IN OTHER ORBITZ DEVELOPMENTS, it is inviting agents to join its affiliate program, which pays a flat "affiliate transaction fee" of $5 for air, $6 for retail hotel, $12 for merchant hotel, $2 for car, $22 for cruise and $16 for packages. Orbitz's existing affiliate program had been off-limits to agents because of GDS-regulation issues. Orbitz will try to leverage its policy of providing unbiased displays to reach agents -- particularly home-based retailers -- who do not participate in preferred-supplier relationships. After becoming a registered affiliate, agents would book travel on Orbitz.com, and activity would be tracked through their e-mail address, ARC or IATA number.
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