Just got back from my catch-up with Dan Lynn, managing director of Expedia AirAsia, and what should I see on the way home? A bus emblazoned with Expedia.com.sg saying, "Don't let the best travel deals pass you by".

Expedia Singapore (pictured below) is the first full service Expedia branded site that's been launched post-the signing of the AirAsia-Expedia joint venture in March – it offers 1,400 hotels and 400 airlines, of which AirAsia is one, Lynn is quick to stress.

But it is clearly the exclusive access to the cheapest AirAsia flights that will differentiate Expedia from the other OTAs in Singapore – the joint venture agreement gives Expedia exclusive distribution rights beyond AirAsia.com of the airline's flights and packages throughout Asia Pacific, with the exception of Australia and New Zealand.

Lynn said he had been encouraged by the numbers on Expedia Singapore so far. "It shows that the proposition of AirAsia flights in combination with our hotels is incredibly powerful.

"In Japan, where our package business is the biggest, it accounts for 20% of room nights. In Singapore, we are seeing 50% of room nights coming from packages so it shows that if you take a low cost carrier and bundle it into a package, it's a great idea."

In Japan and India, where Expedia already had full service sites, the AirAsia content has been switched on. And competitor OTAs, including MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip and Yatra in India, have been notified by AirAsia to remove its inventory from their sites.

Dhruv Shringi, CEO of Yatra, told WIT he was initially a bit surprised by the request "given that Expedia has virtually no distribution of note in india".

He said he didn't see it having too much of an impact on Yatra and he added that Indian low cost carriers were also flying to the destinations that AirAsia flies to and were willing to offer attractive rates to the Indian OTAs.

Full story: 

http://webintravel.com/news/expedia-counts-on-exclusive-airasia-inventory-as-it-executes-jv-in-spore-india-and-japan_2107