dnata

History

The company dnata was established 1959 in Dubai with five employees. The name originates as an acronym for Dubai National Air Travel Agency. The company has grown significantly with the first international expansion seen in 1993.

In 2008, the company acquired a 23 percent share in the travel company Hogg Robinson Group (HRG) and a 49 percent share of the global outsource provider Mind Pearl.

In 2010, dnata acquired Alpha Flight Limited, expanding the company to cover 62 airports in 12 countries. The next year, the company opened offices in India, offering air travel, hotel, and visa services for travellers between India and Dubai.

In 2015, dnata acquired RM Ground Services in Brazil. The acquisition allowed dnata to provide international airports with outsourced aircraft ground handling, cargo transport, and airline meal catering.

In February 2018, dnata co-founded the Airline Catering Association, which is based in Brussels, Belgium.

History

Travel Republic was founded in 2003 by university students Chris Waite, Paul Furner, Kane Pirie and travel agent Peter Furner. They desired to create a website where customers could book accommodation, flights, car transfers and airport parking in one place. The company specialises in enabling users to build their own holiday experience by combining different elements from the Travel Republic site.

Travel Republic is a travel search website acting as an agent only. The company is a member of ABTA and holds an ATOL License.

In January 2007, the company moved to its current headquarters in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. In the same year the company had an annual sales growth of 284.2% and topped the charts of The Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100.

IT services

Mercator has been the information technology arm of dnata providing technology and services to the aviation industry worldwide. In 2014 Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm, acquired the majority stake of Mercator and merged it with Accelya in 2017. The combined company operating under the Accelya brand has 2,800 employees and serves 400 clients worldwide.

Operations and technology

In January 2012, Travel Republic first introduced its mobile website, before expanding into mobile app on IOS in 2014. In 2015 the Android version of the app was launched.

The company aired its first YouTube ad on 17 January 2011. Their first television campaign 'The Last Click' aired in June 2014. With its success, Travel Republic continued to launch TV advertising campaigns. 'Welcome to the Travel Republic' was launched in January 2016 before the latest campaign aired in December 2016 across UK and Ireland. The campaign highlighted Travel Republic's slogan, 'Yours for the making'.

Controversy

In 2019, a dnata employee and others were arrested while they were taking drugs off a plane at Sydney Airport. AFP and Border Force officers swooped and arrested them.

In 2021, six dnata baggage handlers and other people were arrested after they planned to bring drugs into Sydney Airport.

Controversy

In a case brought by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Travel Republic was accused of breaching ATOL regulations by selling unlicensed package holidays. Judge Nicholas Evans delivered the not-guilty verdict at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 10 November 2009. In his judgement, Evans said the prosecution had failed to prove that Travel Republic did anything other than "sell components of holidays separately, but at the same time".