Low cost carriers are increasingly looking to travel agencies as an additional distribution channel, but one that can also deliver higher value transactions, according to Travelport.

Chief executive Gordon Wilson told Travel Today that the technology firm has been focused on “fundamentally reengineering” its global distribution system to cater to the changing needs of airlines.

“That’s so that we can take in content from airlines that want to sell ancillary products,” he explained. “And it’s to make our content more flexible to take in LCCs because they didn’t traditionally distribute through travel agencies but now they are doing.”

The company recently announced a new partnership with Tigerair’s Asian carriers which will enable travel agents to book its fares and products via the GDS. Although Tigerair Australia has no immediate plans to follow suit, Wilson confirmed that several more Asian carriers are likely to to implement its aggregated shopping technology in the coming months.

“And that’s because they want to embrace the travel agency medium, because the travel agency medium represents customers they wouldn’t otherwise get, and more value than they would otherwise get because travel agencies tend to get people to buy the right product for them – which isn’t always the cheapest product.”

New knowledge available via the Internet and the ability to customise their fares according to their needs have empowered consumers but that power can be overwhelming, according to Wilson.

“Consumers are bamboozled with more and more data, more and more information and don’t know who to trust and filtering all that data and information is increasingly hard,” he said. As a result, many will turn to travel agents for assistance.

In a bid to simplify the booking process for both consumers and travel agents, Travelport is working on providing “rich content” which Wilson described as the “next frontier” and forms part of the strategy behind the New Distribution Capability being developed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Travelport will go live with its “rich content” product in the first quarter of 2014 giving airlines the ability to communicate data about their products through travel agency screens – from pictures of seats and wifi capability along with all available ancillaries.

“This is what IATA’s NDC is all about and we’re doing it,” he said, adding that similar opportunities as exist for hotels.