Online service targets Expedia, Travelocity

Orbitz travel site slated for June startup

(CNN) -- Online travel startup Orbitz doesn't anticipate any roadblocks on the way to its scheduled June launch, CEO Jeff Katz said Monday.

Katz praised the U.S. Department of Transportation's announcement Friday that it won't prevent the service, which is backed by five major airlines, from starting operations.

"Consumers are the real winners when there's more competition," he said in a telephone conference call.

The service still awaits a ruling by the U.S. Justice Department before beginning operations.

"We believe that on the merits of the law it's very clear that we're compliant with the law," Katz said.

DOT will keep eye on Orbitz

DOT investigators began probing Orbitz amid complaints that the operation would unfairly restrict competition. Orbitz has billed itself as a booking service that will give consumers a more comprehensive list of schedules and fares, including Internet-only fares for about 35 airlines.

The department said it did not have evidence to justify preventing Orbitz from getting started, but added that it would review its operations after the launch to ensure its practices aren't anti-competitive.

American, Delta, United, Continental, and Northwest are funding Orbitz, and many others have agreed to join as affiliate members.

Katz said he hopes Orbitz eventually will be able to capture 20 percent to 30 percent of the online travel business, which currently is dominated by Expedia and Travelocity.

Orbitz announced Monday that it has signed agreements with several hotels chains, including Marriott, Hyatt and Wyndham. It also added more airlines including KLM, Lufthansa and Lan Chile.

The agreements give Orbitz access to all of the companies' publicly available fares, some of which are currently available only on their individual Web sites.

Katz said 30,000 people already are using a test version of the site.

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Orbitz

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