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 »
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 requests over the… Read More »
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 previously agreed to… Read More »
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 since November 1,… Read More »
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 and have-nots.” The… Read More »
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 announced a distribution… Read More »
New York – With the British Airways/Iberia surcharge on GDS bookings set to take effect in two weeks, many eyes are on the United Kingdom’s largest GDS. Travelport arguably has both more influence on, and more to lose from, the outcome of the airlines’ program than any other intermediary. Speaking at a World Travel Inc. event here last week, Travelport… Read More »