Orbitz

Orbitz Worldwide, Inc.

Type	Subsidiary of Expedia, Inc.
Industry	Travel services
Founded	2001
Headquarters	Citigroup Center Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Key people	Barney Harford, Former CEO (Pre-Expedia)
Revenue	US$767 million (2011)
Owner	Expedia, Inc.
Number of employees	1,400 (2010)
Website	orbitz.com

Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. is a subsidiary of Expedia that operates a web site used to research, plan and book travel. It is headquartered in the Citigroup Center, Chicago, Illinois. Previously a separate company, it was purchased by Expedia in a $1.3 billion deal that was announced in February 2015 and closed in September 2015.

Originally established through a partnership of major airlines, and subsequently owned by various entities, Orbitz.com – the flagship brand of Orbitz Worldwide – has been in operation since 2001. Other Orbitz Worldwide online travel companies include CheapTickets in the Americas; ebookers in Europe; and HotelClub and RatestoGo, based in Sydney. Orbitz Worldwide also owns and operates Orbitz for Business, a corporate travel company. Orbitz was the airline industry's response to the rise of online travel agencies such as Expedia and Travelocity, as well as a solution to lower airline distribution costs. Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, and United Airlines, subsequently joined by American Airlines, invested a combined $145 million to start the project in November 1999. It was code-named T2 — some claimed, meaning "Travelocity Terminator" – but adopted the brand name Orbitz when it commenced corporate operations as DUNC, LLC (the initials of its first four founding airlines) in February 2000. The company began Beta testing early the next year, and Orbitz.com officially launched in June 2001.

Even before the site began operating, the company faced intense antitrust scrutiny – because five of the six "major" airlines were collaborating on the project. Collectively, they controlled 80 percent of the US air travel market. Several consumer organizations, as well as Orbitz's primary competitors at the time (Expedia, Sabre, Travelocity, Galileo) spent significant amounts of money lobbying the United States Department of Transportation to block the project from the outset, and some 23 state attorneys general also voiced concerns due to the complaints of local competitors. When the DOT permitted the company to move ahead in April 2001, the competitive lobbying effort was switched to the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice and the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce.