AirTran Airways Named as a Finalist for the 2009 Travelzoo Awards

/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AAI) , was chosen as a 2009 Travelzoo Awards finalist in the Leading Provider of Domestic Airfare Deals category.

The Travelzoo Awards, also known as 'The Tzoos', celebrate the companies behind the best deals in travel, including airlines, hotels, vacation companies, cruise agencies, cruise lines, shows & events, car rentals and destinations. Travelzoo's 85 deal experts around the world evaluated more than 80,000 deals to uncover the companies behind the best deals in 23 categories.

Throughout its history, AirTran Airways has created new customers in each of the airline's new destinations, extending the benefits of low-fare, high-value service to more people. The company's Atlanta hub has grown substantially, service has expanded in key focus cities, and the overall route map has extended significantly, enabling people to fly who otherwise would have driven or stayed at home.

"AirTran Airways is honored to be a finalist for this year's Travelzoo Awards," said Tad Hutcheson, vice president of marketing and sales for AirTran Airways. "We pride ourselves on being a leader in travel and will uphold our commitment to provide low fares and outstanding customer service."

"With such incredible deals in the market, we are thrilled to be able to honor and celebrate the top 94 travel companies who have surpassed our deal evaluation criteria," said Shirley Tafoya, president, North America, Travelzoo. "These finalists continue to inspire consumers to take their next trip and ultimately help drive demand for travel within the U.S. and abroad."

Travelzoo Award finalists will be recognized and winners will be announced at the 3rd Annual Travelzoo Awards ceremony taking place on Wednesday, April 1, 2009, at the Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta. The event also coincides with TravelCom 2009, which attracts more than 700 travel industry professionals and media. For more information visit http://www.travelzoo.com/tzoos.

To determine the 2009 Travelzoo Award Finalists, Travelzoo's deal experts evaluated over 80,000 deals researched in 2008 on the following 5-point scale:

1. Reliability: The Test Booking Center(TM) performed more than 115,000
verifications on deals published by Travelzoo in 2008. The Test
Booking Center validates both online and offline qualifications
including availability, accuracy of information published and ease of
booking. When tested for this level of reliability, the deals provided
by Finalist companies, met all the requirements of the testing process
and scored in the 90th percentile or higher.
2. Appeal: Of the more than 200,000 user ratings collected by Travelzoo in
2008, Finalist companies consistently achieved user rating scores
between 4.5 and the highest score of 6.
3. Competitiveness: Travelzoo Award Finalists offered competitive travel
deals that were considered outstanding compared to similar offerings in
the marketplace. Qualitative user feedback indicated Finalist
companies regularly developed deals that inspired Travelzoo users to
book trips they did not otherwise plan on taking. Additionally,
proprietary campaign performance data sourced directly from Travelzoo
advertising partners was evaluated to determine the level of consumer
appeal.
4. Consistency: All companies consistently provided Travelzoo users with
exceptional offers throughout the past year that inspired incremental
travel, based on both qualitative and quantitative user feedback.
5. Quality: Travelzoo's 85 deal experts in North America, Europe and
Asia-Pacific, regularly consult with more than 1,000 travel companies
around the world to uncover the best deals. All deal experts were
surveyed for their nominations in 23 categories to arrive at
preliminary nominations. Over the next four weeks the Travelzoo Awards
Committee, comprised of 13 senior deal experts, will be studying the
deals from the Finalist companies, and with the data points listed
above, will determine the winners in 23 categories.

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