PLANO, Texas – HP and Virgin Atlantic Airways today announced they have signed a new information technology (IT) services agreement that extends the companies' 25-year relationship.
HP has provided IT services for Virgin Atlantic since its inaugural flight in 1984.
New to this five-year agreement, HP will provide the next generation of its airline reservations solution, HP Reservation Services, a part of HP's Transportation Applications that HP hosts and maintains on behalf of its clients. New features included in the solution are Electronic Miscellaneous Documents (EMD), which allow Virgin Atlantic employees to electronically capture and account for ancillary sales, and Ticket Re-issue and Refund (TRR) software that automates a formerly labor-intensive function and improves customer service.
“We are impressed with HP's vision for their new reservations platform and how this will enable Virgin Atlantic to exploit a service-oriented architecture (SOA) to provide improved customer services, greater agility and lower costs,” said Mike Cope, IT director at Virgin Atlantic. “This builds on our long-standing partnership with HP during which time Virgin Atlantic has grown to become Britain's second-largest airline serving the world's major cities.”
Also new to the agreement, HP will use its airline service-oriented architecture (AirlineSOA) that connects software and systems to better integrate Virgin Atlantic's operations and help meet the airline's unique market needs. Each of these new functionalities helps Virgin Atlantic lower core reservations services costs and add new revenue opportunities.
HP will continue to provide passenger-processing services that include applications development and hosting of HP Reservation Services, which handles approximately 6 million revenue passengers boarded annually for Virgin Atlantic.
“We have built a strong relationship and mutual trust with the Virgin Atlantic team over the last 25 years,” said Jim Dullum, vice president of Global Transportation Industry at HP. “Taking advantage of HP's latest technology, software development and delivery expertise and industry knowledge creates the right mix of IT innovation to support Virgin Atlantic's continued success.”
Agility Alliance partner Microsoft will provide select tools, software and resources to HP in support of Virgin Atlantic. Together, HP and its Agility Alliance partners collaborate to design, build and run a market-leading services platform and develop technology-based services to deliver tangible client results. Agility Alliance partners include Cisco, EMC, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Sun Microsystems and Xerox.
As a leading transportation IT services provider, HP's end-to-end capabilities encompass air carriers, airports, cruise lines, logistics and modal providers, hotel companies and major reservations networks. HP brings world-class technology solutions and infrastructure to help transportation and travel-related clients sustain competitive advantage in a highly dynamic global market.
About Virgin Atlantic Airways
Since it was founded in 1984, Virgin Atlantic Airways has become Britain's second largest carrier serving the world's major cities. Now based at both London's Gatwick and Heathrow airports, it operates long haul services to 30 destinations world-wide as far apart as Las Vegas, Sydney and Shanghai.
Virgin Atlantic has enjoyed huge popularity, winning top business, consumer and trade awards from around the world. The airline has pioneered a range of innovations setting new standards of service, which its competitors have subsequently sought to follow. Despite Virgin Atlantic's growth the service still remains customer driven with an emphasis on value for money, quality, fun and innovation.
Virgin Atlantic currently has a fleet of 38 aircraft which includes thirteen 747s and six A340-300s and nineteen A340-600s.
About HP Enterprise Services
HP Enterprise Services is a leading global technology services provider, delivering business solutions to its customers. HP founded the information technology outsourcing industry more than 46 years ago. Today, HP delivers a broad portfolio of information technology and business process outsourcing services to customers in the manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, communications, energy, transportation, and consumer and retail industries, and to governments around the world.
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