In the first full year since ECI Partners, the UK private equity firm, invested in CarTrawler, over 250 new airlines, hotels and online travel agencies have appointed CarTrawler as their exclusive car rental partner.
In the aviation sector, CarTrawler signed West Jet, Canada’s no.1 airline website and UTair, a leading Russian airline. These significant new partnerships reinforce CarTrawler’s position in the Canadian travel market and introduce the brand to the rapidly growing Russian aviation market. Added to an existing portfolio of over 40 aviation partners, which already includes international carriers such as Emirates, Wizz Air, Vueling, Hawaiian Airlines, and Norwegian Air Shuttle, CarTrawler now provides car rental booking facilities to an audience of over 275 million airline passengers globally.
CarTrawler’s growth across all other sectors of the travel industry has also continued to perform strongly with a number of global partnership deals signed in 2012, including Webjet.co,au, Australia and New Zealand’s largest online travel agency, Travix International, one of Europe’s largest online travel groups, and Starwood Hotels, one of the world’s largest hotel and leisure companies. These organisations join a growing list of market leading travel brands that have chosen CarTrawler to support their strategy for driving growth through their product offering in 2013 and beyond.
Speaking in Dublin today, CarTrawler Chief Executive Mike McGearty said: “By satisfying consumer demand for choice and convenience across both domestic and international geographies, CarTrawler consistently delivers profitable growth for our partners.
“Our product attracts a growing network of travel brands that service consumers all over the world, all year round. This makes CarTrawler an important volume driver to car rental suppliers as we bring their product to a vast global audience at an efficient distribution cost.
“We have firmly established our position as global market leaders in our field. We continue to invest in our team and technology to ensure that we remain the driving force behind car rental ancillary revenue programs worldwide. We have created a robust value cycle for partners, suppliers and consumers alike and as such, are well positioned to continue to deliver sustainable growth.”
