Australian travellers booking flights on the Web will reap the benefits of wholesale prices, according to a new strategy by Internet travel company Webjet.
The new automated booking technology - claimed to be the first of its kind in Australia - will produce considerable fare reductions, "with savings of up to hundreds of dollars," according to Webjet Managing Director David Clarke.
Customers will be hit with a small fulfilment fee on each transaction, but are being promised price cuts of up to AU$20 on domestic flights, AU$200 on European flights, and AU$100-300 on flights to Asia.
The technology gives customers the option of booking their flights though the online airline inventory system, providing access to 'factory prices' which travel agents buy at. Customers will have the other option of using an online chat session with a travel consultant in real time.
Webjet will use the automated booking technology to slimline the booking process and cut out the middleman, promising to remove warehousing, packing and mailing costs from the transaction loop.
"The technology will make travel costs fully transparent for the first time in Australia, revealing to customers the real net cost of the fare from the airline and the surcharge they are paying. This puts real pressure on mainstream agents."
Clarke believes the technology will deliver the "long-awaited boom in e-travel, which he claims will "trigger" a market shakeout.
"These sorts of approaches have had a profound impact on the US travel market where similar technology has already been introduced."
