HFTP News
January 18, 20184 min read

Buddy Altus of Avis Budget Group Elected as Vice-Chairperson of OpenTravel

Buddy Altus of Avis Budget Group Elected as Vice-Chairperson of OpenTravel — Source: HFTP
Appointments Travel Technology

OpenTravel Alliance (OpenTravel), the travel industry's only distribution specification standards development organization covering multiple segments, recently elected Buddy Altus, vice president of distribution at Avis Budget Group, as the vice-chairman of its board of directors. Altus most recently served as a board member representing the rental car category. OpenTravel's board of directors has a mission to help the association enable the future of travel by driving the evolving digital experience for consumers around the world.

"I am looking forward to continuing Avis Budget Group's leadership role with OpenTravel Alliance," said Altus. "As a founding member, we hold the association in high regard and are proud that our participation has benefited the industry, the association's members and especially customers. It is an exciting time in travel with so much change occurring in the mobility space. We will continue our contribution to the travel API ecosystem as OpenTravel leads the industry in developing and exposing services as part of the API economy – making it even faster and easier for partners to contact and improve the entire customer journey."

Altus' responsibilities include managing product development and business from third party e-commerce applications and services, including: ABG's XML interface; private label booking engines used by airlines; corporate accounts; travel agencies; ABG mobile sites; and global distribution systems. His experience prior to Avis Budget Group includes e-commerce companies in music, content protection and group buying. Additionally, Altus spent 10 years at American Express where he was part of the team that developed AXI, American Express' first corporate booking tool. Before he moved to travel and e-commerce he developed programming language software at Intermetric.

"We are thrilled for Buddy to serve as vice-chair of OpenTravel, succeeding Susanne Auinger who has recently been elected as chairperson of the board," said Mike Tinkey, CEO at OpenTravel. "Buddy brings the rental car perspective along with distribution experience in interoperability with air, lodging and rental car utilizing OpenTravel standards. He is a visionary, innovative, collaborative and disciplined leader who assists the board with strategic and practical applications of OpenTravel standards globally with a rental car focus."

For more information about OpenTravel Alliance, please contact Jessica Blankenship at [email protected] or visit http://opentravel.org.

About OpenTravel Alliance

OpenTravel Alliance is passionate about solving the problems inherent with connecting multiple systems within the complex travel distribution arena. Our mission is to enable the future of travel by driving the evolving digital experience for consumers. OpenTravel Alliance creates, expands and drives adoption of open specifications, including but not limited to the use of XML, for the electronic exchange of business information among all sectors of the travel industry.

OpenTravel Alliance is comprised of companies representing airlines, car rental firms, hotels, cruise lines, railways, leisure suppliers, service providers, tour operators, travel agencies, solutions providers, technology companies and distributors. Tens of thousands of OpenTravel Alliance message structures are in use, carrying tens of millions of messages between trading partners every day.

OpenTravel Alliance is a not-for-profit trade association, founded in 1999 by travel companies, with a primary focus on the creation of electronic message structures to facilitate communication between the disparate systems in the global travel industry. For more information on OpenTravel Alliance membership, new products, or projects, please visit http://www.opentravel.org or email [email protected].

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