Airlines have big plans for new distribution capabilities. Whether and when they become reality in corporate travel remain open questions. At the moment, it’s looking like a huge challenge. British Airways officials said they anticipated a “large chunk” of travel agencies would transition to NDC channels this year. Air France-KLM’s roadmap calls for new products…
With many travel management companies accepting the IAG airlines’ private channel GDS deals, which are left out? Industry experts see the “have-nots” facing ruin or consolidation. The puzzling part is, why would British Airways and Iberia want that? Posed to a BA press official, that question was not answered. International Airlines Group has declined multiple…
Travelport and British Airways/Iberia agreed to a framework for surcharge-free airfares, adopting the private channel concept for travel agency users that sacrifice GDS incentives. It wasn’t unexpected, but the agreement serves as a letdown for some U.K. travel agency leaders who were hoping the market’s top GDS would fight the private-channel construct. Amadeus and Sabre had…
British Airways and Iberia agreed to remove their global distribution system surcharge for users of Expedia and clients of its Egencia corporate travel arm, according to an Egencia spokesperson. “As part of a wider Expedia/Egencia agreement reached by Expedia Inc. and IAG (BA and Iberia), travelers booking from EMEA and Asia Pacific have been surcharge-free…
[UPDATE, Nov. 21, 2017: A Delta Air Lines official confirmed that its seat availability is is “identical across carriers, to the last available seat” with JV allies Aeromexico, Air France, Alitalia and KLM, and with partners China Eastern, Gol and Jet Airways. Meanwhile, American Airlines’ “seamless codeshare availability” with Iberia and British Airways covers all…
Sabre CEO Sean Menke confirmed what many suspected. The IAG private channel option for travel agencies caught up in reworked economics between airlines and GDSs is about foregoing GDS incentives. Parent of British Airways and Iberia, IAG created “two buckets for the agency community,” Menke explained during the Wednesday Bernstein Technology Summit. He called them the “haves…
Sabre reached a deal with International Airlines Group to give agency users a “path to unique content if they enter a Private Channel agreement” with IAG airlines. That presumably would waive the carriers’ surcharge on bookings through global distribution systems. A Sabre spokesperson informed reporters of the development Friday morning. That was hours after Air France-KLM…
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