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Fareportal
Company typePrivately Held Company
IndustryOnline Travel Agency
Founded2002
FounderSam S. Jain
Headquarters
Manhattan, New York
,
U.S.A.
Area served
International
Key people
Sam S. Jain, Founder & CEO
Christopher Cuddy, CCO
Harsh Sood, CTO
William Bullard, CFO
Werner Kunz, COO
BrandsCheapOair, OneTravel, Fareportal Media Group, clubmiles, Royal Scenic, Duke's Court Travel, Travelong
Websitewww.fareportal.com

Fareportal Inc. is an online travel agency that provides travel technology, travel business process outsourcing, ticket fulfillment, and call center solutions to the online travel industry.[1] It offers self booking tools, such as web fares, consolidator, contracts database, profile management system, travel reports, private negotiated fares, and hotel and car information. It operates websites in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.[2]

Fareportal consists of seven subsidiary brands in the online travel industry that include CheapOair and OneTravel. Fareportal was started with a $4,000 investment from its founder Sam Jain and had revenues of approximately $3.2 billion by 2013.[3] The company has received numerous industry awards and is listed in the top 10 of Travel Weekly's Power List. [4]

History

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Fareportal was founded by Sam S. Jain in 2002. Jain's experience included the founding of the travel website FareBuzz in the late 1990s, starting Fareportal as a way to develop booking engines, e-commerce sites, and management tools for the retail travel industry.[1] He noticed that travel databases in the 1990s were cluttered and launched Fareportal to organize travel distribution methods electronically.[1] The company was founded with a $4,000 investment that Jain paid with his credit card and initially booked deals through telephone and in person as opposed to online.[3] Fareportal organized wholesale prices offered by airlines into a searchable database that allowed them to provide a fare code faster than other travel agents.[3]

Fareportal expanded in 2005 with the launch of CheapOair, a subsidiary of the company. CheapOair was profitable by 2007 and earned $825 million in revenue in 2009 and reached the $1 billion mark in 2010.[5] Fareportal began an aggressive advertising campaign beginning in 2010 in order to increase its exposure in the market.[6] The ad helped increase Fareportal's revenue and also earned it several Magellan Awards from Travel Weekly.[7] By 2013, CheapOair became one of the five largest online travel agencies based in the United States. In August 2013 it became the third most visited online travel agencies behind Expedia and Priceline.[5] The same year, CheapOair hit a milestone by receiving its one millionth download of its mobile application.[8]

Fareportal was the first online travel agency that provided a "choice seat" option, allowing users to book a select seat for an added cost as well as conventional coach and first class seats.[9] The feature was initially launched for US Airways in 2013 and later expanded to other carries.[9] In 2014, Fareportal became the first to sing an agreement with American Airlines and US Airways since the two airlines merged in 2012.[10] The agreement came at the same time that American Airlines pulled its fares from Orbitz after being unable to reach an agreement with that company.[10] 2014 is also the year Fareportal entered into a joint venture with airline consolidator Contravel. The venture brought Fareportal into the travel market covering Mexico as well as Central and Latin America.[11]

Brands operated by Fareportal

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Fareportal operates seven brands in the travel industry, including CheapOair and OneTravel.[12] Its headquarters are in New York City and has operation centers in New Delhi, Las Vegas, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and London.[13] Additional brands include the Fareportal Media Group, clubmiles, Royal Scenic, Duke's Court Travel, and Travelong.[12] CheapOair is the largest brand in the group, followed by OneTravel.[14]

CheapOair

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Main article: CheapOair
CheapOair logo

CheapOair is an American multinational online travel agency that sells travel services like airfare, hotel rooms, rental cars, and vacation packages.[15] Since its inception in 2005, CheapOair has become one of the top 5 online travel agencies[5] and has won numerous awards, including those from Travel Weekly.[7] CheapOair has received recognition from numerous publications (including Fortune,[1] USA Today,[16] The New York Times,[17] and Bloomberg Businessweek)[18] for being a discount option for booking travel services. As of 2014, the website receives over 20 million unique monthly visitors,[18] has agreements with more than 450 airlines,[19] and offers deals on over 100 million airfares.[20]

OneTravel

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OneTravel logo

OneTravel is an online travel agency operated by Fareportal. It provides deals on flights, hotels, cars and vacation packages.[11] It was originally founded in the mid 1990s in Pennsylvania and is one of the oldest travel websites.[21]

Technology

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Fareportal has a proprietary technology that it developed in-house, with net-fare databases that are unique to the travel industry.[22] It has multiple reporting features and a sophisticated online tracking system that assists in targeted online marketing. Fareportal technology is built on the .NET Framework portal. The technology also includes features that allow complex markups, discounts, opaque fares and auto ticketing, and enhances fulfillment of air, car and hotel reservations. The technology has the ability to integrate with each of the leading Global Distribution Systems, Sabre, Galileo CRS and Amadeus CRS, for airline, car rental, and hotel reservations.[23]

Fareportal has its main websites in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.[2] It also has microsites throughout Eurpoe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.[2] Fareportal also provides online travel services through a mobile application.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Eng, Dinah (13 November 2014). "Sam Jain's CheapOair is really taking off". Fortune. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  2. ^ a b c Schaal, Dennis (4 June 2014). "American Airlines Signs First Post-Merger Booking Site Pact With CheapOair". Skift. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Vilabrera, Alisa (14 October 2013). "How One Entrepreneur Started a Company With His Credit Card and Became a Millionaire". Bplans. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  4. ^ "2014 Power List". Travel Weekly. 23 June 2014. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  5. ^ a b c Schaal, Dennis (24 September 2013). "Why CheapOair Is Sticking With Flights While Booking Peers Chase Hotels". Skift. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  6. ^ Johansmeyer, Tom (6 December 2010). "Brand Wars: The Airline Booking Battle Will Be Televised". Gadling. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  7. ^ a b Munro, Aria (7 October 2010). "CheapOair Wins Three 2010 Travel Weekly Magellan Awards". eNewsChannels. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  8. ^ "CheapOair Celebrates One Million Mobile App Downloads". Reuters. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  9. ^ a b Perkins, Ed (30 April 2013). "New airfare search websites". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  10. ^ a b Karp, Gregory (26 August 2014). "American Airlines takes fares off Orbitz". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  11. ^ a b Schaal, Dennis (9 December 2014). "CheapOair Parent Enters Mexico Market Through Investment in Consolidator". Skift. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  12. ^ a b "Brands". Fareportal official website. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  13. ^ "Fareportal's Cheapoair & Onetravel Bring Superior OTA Solutions to Consumers Booking Vacations, Business Trips". Travel & Tour World. 19 July 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  14. ^ Schaal, Dennis (25 August 2014). "Interview: CheapOair CEO on Bridging the Gape Between Booking Site and Travel Agent". Skift. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  15. ^ Merrihew, Lincoln (18 March 2013). "CheapOair Creates Turbulence In Travel Industry". Compete Pulse. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  16. ^ Oakley, Rachel. "How to Fly Cheaply as a Student". USA Today. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  17. ^ Gross, Matt (16 February 2010). "Booking a Flight the Frugal Way". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  18. ^ a b Bachman, Justin (22 August 2013). "This Travel-Booking Website Loves It When You Call". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  19. ^ Kendall, Sara (8 April 2014). "Q&A with CheapOair". The Charlotte Observer. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  20. ^ Johnson, Lauren (10 December 2012). "CheapOair racks up app downloads via mobile sweepstakes". Mobile Commerce Daily. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  21. ^ "OneTravel". Crunch Base. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  22. ^ Gorman, Patrick (11 February 2015). "Fareportal's In-House Marketing Tech". Chief Marketer. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  23. ^ "CheapOair upgrades and introduces Auto-Airline Ticketing Technology". CheapOair official website. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
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