Friday, January 25, 2008

GDS headache for continental cousins

So, what is the motivation for Lufthansa and Swiss putting surcharges on certain fares booked by travel agents through the GDS.

  • Could it be they are just flexing their muscles?
  • Are they driving traffic to their own online channels, trade and consumer?
  • Could it be that European airline/GDS contract negotiations are ongoing?
  • Maybe it's something to do with all three.
This seems completely at odds with a deal just completed between Iberia and Amadeus which is being heralded - by Aedave, the Spanish version of ABTA, no less [you'll need to dust off your Spanish] - as a first step towards airlines doing away with surcharges for fares booked through a GDS.

More on the subject from Business Travel Europe.

Thoughts?

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

Posted by Travolution Blogger at 2:14 pm

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is absolutely about airlines flexing their muscles, but also elements of all three.

This time last year was the great British Airways saga with the GDSs. And how did that end? With BA doing very thank you much.

26 January, 2008
Travolution Blogger said...

Thanks exgds, tell us more... Are we set for a bit of hard ball between airlines and the GDS for the next few months or have the Spaniards got the solution?

28 January, 2008

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