Tango Marks Industry First with Enhanced Online Tools Including Advanced Airfare Pricing and Shopping Services Tango becomes Canada's and the world's first low cost service offering customers comprehensive, self serve online trip planning MONTREAL, April 10 /CNW Telbec/ - Tango by Air Canada is the first air service in Canada and the only low cost air service in the world to offer customers greatly enhanced and faster online services including itinerary changes and cancellations. The newly introduced online services, now available at www.flytango.com puts more power and control of the trip planning process into Tango customers' hands and significantly reduces Air Canada's distribution costs for Tango reservations. This initiative is consistent with Air Canada's commercial restructuring to better meet the needs of its customers. Tango's online customers can now not only book their travel but also make complete or partial changes to their reservations and make trip cancellations across all fare classes on all routes. Tango online customers can now review and print their itinerary; change, add or cancel flights and, as always, pay online as the new booking engine automatically re-prices trip changes. Over 85 per cent of Tango's customers book their travel online. "Tango's customers now have more control than ever over their trip planning with these new online, self serve travel planning tools," said Ben Smith, Tango's Managing Director. "Our customers now experience faster online services and have access to more information and better options for booking travel on Tango. With less need for manual assistance from phone agents to process and manage trip planning, this also reduces Air Canada's distribution costs," he said. Tango's faster and enhanced online services are made possible through a new fare database system powered by ITA software. "ITA Software is proud to provide shopping and pricing technology for Tango," said Jeremy Wertheimer, president and CEO of ITA Software. "Airline customers are looking to buy tickets on the Internet, and airlines are looking to save money. Tango is the first low fare air service to take advantage of the powerful functionality and low cost of our system." ITA Software uses advanced computer technology built on open standards versus older mainframe technology. Its systems use PC-based technology and advanced algorithms to sort through a multitude of itineraries and price options to quickly provide users with the broadest range of options. ITA Software is hosting Tango by Air Canada at its hosting center in Boston. Tango Tango, the largest operator of low fare flights from Toronto's Pearson International Airport, will offer up to 52 daily arrivals and departures from Toronto this summer. Tango currently serves 21 Canadian destinations with seasonal service to select destinations in the U.S. For summer 2003 Tango will operate flights with a fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft in a 159-seat configuration offering the same comfortable thirty two inch seat pitch offered on most full service carriers and ample stowage space. Tango also offers a unique "all extras are optional" in-flight service including a menu selection of hot and cold snacks and refreshments, audio and video entertainment and advance seat selection, all at reasonable prices. ITA Software ITA Software, Inc. (www.itasoftware.com) is the leader in innovative airline distribution technology. As the creators of efficient algorithms, matrix-style user interfaces, robust APIs, and sophisticated availability management systems, ITA Software has revolutionized travel distribution by providing airlines an alternative to legacy mainframe systems. ITA Software licenses its technology to many of the world's leading travel companies, including Orbitz, America West Airlines, Continental Airlines, Galileo International, SITA, Accovia, Amadeus, and others. Through ITA Software's hosting centers, customers are provided travel services to their own Web sites as well as consumer brands, such as Cheaptickets.com, Trip.com, and Disney.com Note: High resolution downloadable color photos of Tango aircraft are available at www.flytango.com by selecting "What's Tango" and then selecting "Photo Gallery". *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.carstt.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************