FCTG & Serko announce partnership

Travel giant Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) and New Zealand-based technology specialist Serko are transforming the online booking experience for business travellers.

Both Serko and FCTG’s corporate division have been widely recognised for bringing tech innovation to business travel, and now they are working on an exclusive initiative to develop ‘Savi’ – a cutting edge and AI-driven online booking platform.

Savi will be exclusive to the corporate clients of FCM Travel Solutions, Corporate Traveller, Stage and Screen, Cievents and Executive Travel.

Serko announced the partnership with FCTG, and the development of Savi in a statement to the New Zealand and Australian Stock Exchange on Tuesday 31 July 2018.

Product leaders from FCTG’s corporate division and platform developers from Serko have been working hand in hand on the development of Savi. The result will be a re-imagination of the online booking experience as we know it.

General Manager of FCTG’s corporate division, Nick Queale said the joint travel and technology initiative would benefit from FCTG’s and Serko’s vast industry experience in their respective fields.

“FCTG draws on 40 years of experience in corporate, leisure and wholesale travel, while Serko has more than 25 years of travel technology experience across online booking and mobile applications, airline distribution, global distribution systems (GDS) and new distribution capability (NDC),” Nick said.

“Flight Centre’s corporate division was one of the pioneers in online booking technology with the release of e3 in the early 2000s and we were first to market with ‘Rapid Book’, which is a single screen booking technology that was developed in conjunction with Serko. As a company we make a significant annual investment on technology to support our clients.

“The release of Savi, which initially will be in Australia and New Zealand, is highly anticipated by our business and we can’t wait to share it with our customers. Details about timeframes will be available soon.”

Serko’s CEO, Darrin Grafton, said the partnership between the two companies brought the right level of experience, customer insight and technology prowess to be able to deliver products that would fundamentally change the way business travellers interacted with online platforms.

“We are hugely excited to be working with the Flight Centre Group on this project,” Darrin said.

“Savi is set to provide a truly re-imagined experience to business travellers, travel bookers and travel managers across Australia and New Zealand. We’re looking forward to helping FCTG bring Savi to life for its customers.”