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Opodo is an Internet travel agency website. It is a pan-European enterprise, founded by a consortium of European airlines, including British Airways, Air France, Alitalia, Iberia, KLM, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus, Austrian Airlines and Finnair. The travel technology provider Amadeus is a majority shareholder. Opodo offers a full worldwide range of travel products including flights (from more than 500 scheduled and low cost airlines), package holidays, dynamic packaging, city-breaks, hotels, car rental, event tickets, excursions, ski holidays, cottages, holiday rentals, and cruises. Opodo's present turnover has reached €1.3 billion in gross sales, as of 2008.
Opodo operates out of thirteen European countries. It operates Opodo-branded sites in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland Travellink-branded sites in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland. It also operates several other French travel websites, as well as Quest Travel, a British tour operator which has now ceased trading.
Opodo launched its first site in Germany in November 2001, its UK site in January 2002, its French site in April 2002 and its Italian site in January 2006.
The name "opodo" is a natural ambigram, with rotational symmetry. The name "opodo" was selected because it does not mean anything in any of the European languages, thus ensuring that all of the countries treat it as a 'foreign' website. The word opodo stands for "OPportunity tO DO"
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