First View

Hewlett Packard is flexing its significant muscles in the travel space. Not since the heyday of IBM and Univac in the 1970s has a general services provider made a realistic play for business in the airline and wider travel industries. With almost half of the US market in the bag HP certainly has a platform from which to build. Along with Google's intentions for ITA and a possible role for Apple somewhere down the line this represents a substantial threat to the industry specialist providers like Amadeus, Sabre and Navitaire.