ITA Software announced today that the Travel Industry Association (TIA) has awarded it with the TravelCom Res-Expo Established Innovator Award. This honor recognizes co mpanies that have been in business for at least five years whose outstanding innovations in the areas of technology, e-commerce and distribution have transformed their business, and had a broad impact acr oss the travel industry.

From the beginning, ITA Software has focused on building innovative solutions. ITA Software's QPX was the industry's first modern airfare shopping and pricing engine. The system was built from the ground up and has no dependency on GDS or legacy mainframe pricing systems. QPX allows customers to make changes faster and more efficiently, enabling them to respond rapidly to shifting market condition s, drive sales and reduce distribution costs. It offers the end user more accurate and comprehensive results, access to more customized choices, and a better overall shopping experience.

"We thank TIA for this honor. And we thank our employees for their innovation and commitment to writing great software," said Jeremy Wertheimer, president and CEO of ITA Software. "We are proud to be the inaugural recipient of this award and look forward to continuing to help shape the future of the travel industry. We also want to congratulate our customer Farecast for winning the new company innovator award."

Farecast was also recognized by TIA, winning the TravelCom Res-Expo New Innovator Award, for companies less than five years old. Farecast developed the first and only airfare prediction website that leve rages ITA Software's patented algorithms and creative search and shopping technologies.

To select the winners, TIA assembled a panel of top travel executives representing the full spectrum of the travel industry to review all entries. Winning companies were recognized in a ceremony on Frida y, April 6 in front of hundreds of travel industry leaders and media at the TravelCom Res-Expo conference in Las Vegas. The winners were also invited to join the judging panel and serve as presenters to next year's winners.
 
About ITA Software
ITA Software (www.itasoftware.com) was founded by computer scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ITA Software is the leading provider of innovative technology and services for the ai rline industry. ITA developed the industry's most comprehensive airfare pricing, shopping and availability management system. This system is in use by leading travel companies such as Aeroplan, Alask a Airlines, Alitalia, Continental Airlines, US Airways, Kayak, Orbitz, Farecast, and others. ITA is currently building a completely new airline reservation system. In 2006 ITA was named as one of the Be st Places to Work by the Boston Business Journal; received the Economic Impact award from the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development; and received Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 award.