Sabre Corporation and SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, have announced new flights between Singapore, Vientiane and Luang Prabang are now available for travel agents to book through the Sabre Travel Marketplace.
This is the first time this air content will be available to travel agents via a Global Distribution System (GDS).
SilkAir launched its Singapore-Vientiane-Luang Prabang-Singapore flights 31 October, available through a codeshare agreement with Lao Airlines.
With the new destinations, the full service airline operates almost 400 weekly flights to 51 destinations in 14 countries, using a fleet of Airbus 320 and Boeing 737 aircraft.
SilkAir’s Vice President, commercial, Ryan Pua, commented that the launch of these new routes will support Laos’s emergence as a popular international tourism destination.
“This new service connects Laos with the joint Singapore Airlines and SilkAir network of over 100 cities worldwide, via the Singapore Changi Airport hub and connecting international flights. Now, through our agreement with Sabre, these flights will also be made available to over 425,000 Sabre-connected travel agents globally, supporting further growth in travel bookings to and from Laos,” added Mr Pua.
Total visitor numbers to Laos reached 4.6 million in 2015 and are projected by the Lao Tourism Development Department to almost double by 2025, reaching 9 million.
“Laos has significant potential as an international tourism destination. Continued visitor growth is being further supported by a government commitment to promote the industry, ongoing infrastructure development and the country’s entry into the ASEAN Economic Community last year,” commented Sabre Travel Network vice president of supplier commerce and strategic partnerships Asia Pacific, Hans Belle.
Sabre is the first GDS to enable electronic ticketing of SilkAir tickets amongst authorised travel agents in Laos, which is a non-IATA Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) country.
Source: TTR Weekly
