When Lufthansa Group in mid-2015 informed the market of a new distribution strategy, one stated objective was to lower associated costs. The company expects to prove wrong the skeptics and start achieving that by the end of 2018. Lufthansa’s financial reporting does not offer enough detail to completely validate progress, but there are indicators of short-term pain for… Read More »
According to published reports in Europe, Lufthansa Group on April 5 began discounting by 20 euros some short-haul economy-class roundtrip fares when booked through direct or NDC-enabled channels. This is on top of the 16 euro surcharge Lufthansa, Austrian and Swiss currently apply on bookings through global distribution systems, effectively more than doubling the disadvantage in traditional, indirect… Read More »
The news that an activist investor took a stake in Travelport to push a possible sale of the company has analysts, consultants and industry leaders speculating about the possibilities. Could the GDS be broken up and sold to its two Western rivals? What about keeping it whole and selling to China-based TravelSky? Is there a wild-card buyer out… Read More »
Amadeus is reorganizing its travel agency and corporate business lines to focus on global customer sectors rather than geographies. Two of its more recognizable execs in North America are leaving. Amadeus SVP of travel channels Decius Valmorbida said the departures of North America COO Vic Pynn and chief marketing officer Scott Alvis, while “difficult” decisions, were natural outcomes of… Read More »
Well-funded startup Lola last week announced its Lola Works small business platform featuring reporting, team collaboration and policy and spending guidelines with “wiggle room.” The features could have some appeal, but Lola’s bigger challenges remain unresolved. One, how will it find customers? Two, can it compete for said customers without offering the airline that carries the most passengers in… Read More »
Amadeus put together a new unit focused on IATA’s New Distribution Capability. Called NDC-X, it’s led by Amadeus VP Gianni Pisanello. “We have been involved in NDC for quite some time,” Pisanello said. “We were the first to bring NDC into production in 2014, with United Airlines. We were waiting for a certain maturity in the market and… Read More »
Evercore ISI analysts are bullish on Amadeus. They like the strength of its airline IT business and expect the company to continue growing share on the GDS side. Evercore in a research report issued Jan. 4 raised its Amadeus outlook to “outperform” from “in line.” Amadeus’ gains would be losses for Sabre and Travelport, both downgraded by Evercore… Read More »