Parsippany, N.J.-based Galileo International is launching its travel data and
services operation into the Web services
arena for the online travel industry.
The move will allow Galileo’s customers (including travel agencies, software
developers and suppliers of air, hotel, car, tour and cruise services) to
directly access the company’s travel information and services.
Galileo, a Cendant
subsidiary, said customers will soon be able to access information from
Galileo to do anything from building an Internet booking engine to
integrating travel information within their own Web sites with Web access as
their only requirement.
“We’re currently deploying Web services with select customers, and will
introduce Web services solutions to all of our customers in the upcoming
months,” said Mickey Lutz, Galileo’s CIO.
He said that with Web services, customer information can be seamlessly
integrated with Galileo data regardless of what operating platform each
system resides on, or what language each system is written in.
Currently, Galileo Wireless and Cendant’s Trip.com, a leisure travel Web site, integrate
weather data from Galileo servers into their systems using Galileo Web
services. Additionally, select travel organizations will be able to use
Galileo’s hosted Web services for accessing data, such as air fares and
flight availability, from Galileo’s Apollo system.
Galileo is using the standard, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), which
provides a way for applications to communicate with each other over the
Internet, independent of platform. SOAP relies on structured XML data from
the Apollo and Galileo. systems to define the format of the information and
typically uses HTTP to send it.
Pricing for Galileo Web services will be based on an annual licensing fee and
a pay-for-service transaction model. Galileo said it plans to announce
generally available Web services solutions in the third quarter.