Tui strengthens car hire brand

Tui Travel’s car rental technology business MicronNexus has strengthened its tie-up with Travelport to offer agents access to an additional 40 car hire partners

Galileo and Apollo-enabled agents will be the first to benefit from the link-up, with plans in place to offer Worldspan agents the same new interface. MicronNexus also said that over time more car hire firms will be added, giving agents more than 100 new car hire businesses to book.

Tui Car Hire, its car hire broker, will also be made available to agents. This gives agents the chance to sell cars with insurance and at specially negotiated rates.

MicronNexus powers the car rental channel for a number of airlines tour operators and OTAs. It also runs its own B2C sites including www.carhiremarket.com.

Car rental technology firms have been in the spotlight recently following Priceline Inc’s purchase earlier this year of TravelJigsaw, a Manchester-based consumer car rental business. Priceline, which owns leading bedbank booking.com, plans to turn TravelJigsaw into its worldwide car hire brand.