Feature: GDSs - the state of play ➔
specific services that airlines offer. Sabre, for example, uses extensive XML and API messaging, including a link with US Airways to offer the airline's Choice Seats option within the system. Amadeus' Rob Golledge says, “With ancillary services we've definitely got the technology available. We can confidently say we can do anything an airline wants from a technology perspective but, again, that comes down to a commercial discussion. “We have the technology and we have the
front end for the TMCs that gives them a catalogue of services that are available – it's just up to the airlines whether they want to sell through that model,“ says Golledge. According to Michael Hare, CEO of Portman
Travel and chairman of the Guild of Travel Management Companies, there is no point in discussing alternative methods of distribution. “The GDSs currently provide – and have done
for a very long time – a very, very efficient way of distributing global content,“ he says. “One of the reasons they still provide that unique proposition to the corporate customer is their flexibility in the whole process. “The GDSs can manage infinite number of
changes, infinite amounts of content from different types of suppliers in different environments while handling changes, revalidations, reissuing, ticketing, reporting, duty of care and corporate social responsibility.“ Hare continues, “Currently, no other tool can provide that. It is as simple as that. There is no other product on the market that does everything that a corporate traveller requires.“ This is a view also supported by Egencia UK managing director Jonny Shingles. “We believe we have got to offer all our clients the best possible content and I firmly believe that the
GDS remains the most efficient and effective way of doing this,“ he said. But Egencia does not take all its content through the GDS and Shingles can see a future where the GDS forms part of a hybrid distribution model, although not necessarily how airline bookings and product are handled. “The vast majority of our business comes through airlines and hotels and to that respect we rely on the GDS but if there is something new coming in, such as serviced apartments, it is our responsibility to give clients access to that content,“ says Shingles. With separate content feed, however, TMCs needed to be aware of the problems associated with capturing management information, a role that GDSs are valued for and which is used as an argument for keeping content in one place. A view from Margaret Birse, director global
travel services for Serco, represents the bolder faction on the buyer side of the fence. “Yes, I think there should be more direct connects with companies, because it is our money being spent,“ says Birse. “I'm not in a rush to see the demise of GDSs
but I think we have to move forward. If there are multiple feeds coming in it is not impossible to manage it all. The technology is there and the wherewithal is there.“ But perhaps not quite yet. “I've got concerns
and I want to understand better what the alternatives are, what it means to us and what would we need to do to store information centrally,“ says Birse. “I am not opposed to alternatives but I don't see anything being an alternative yet. I would be concerned
about something that is built by someone that could be driving things their way, which is why I have always quite liked the GDSs. There is an element of them having preferences but it is across the board – there is not one airline or hotel group that is getting the lion's share of the attention.“ Click Travel managing director Simon McLean believes the distribution model which sees suppliers such as airlines paying for visibility on GDSs is outdated and argues in favour of distribution channels like Travel Fusion, which charges for its content. “With the GDS model, the airlines pay the
GDS who in turn pay the agencies in the form of incentives and everybody can see that is the wrong way round,“ says McLean. “It might be the Travel Fusion Model is too far
the other way but something has to change and I believe this is what the American Airlines dispute it all about.“ He adds that GDSs will probably not go away
and the future will see the industry using a mixed model. “We will continue to use GDSs, we will continue to use modern distribution channels such as Travel Fusion and other aggregators, and we will put direct connect into suppliers that are particularly important to us,“ explains McLean. “For example, we could get easyJet content
“I'm not in a rush to see the demise of GDSs but we have to move forward. If there are multiple feeds coming in it's not impossible to manage it all”
from GDSs or from several other aggregators but we don't. We have a direct connection to easyJet because we do a lot of business with them and it is efficient and cost effective to have a direct link,“ he says. In the meantime, many in the corporate travel industry say they need the principals advocating direct connect to explain the ramifications. Ayjaya Sodha, Key Travel chairman and chairman elect of the GTMC says, “The Guild of Travel Management Companies has invited American Airlines to come and tell us what it is all about, have a debate about
business and how we go about it so we can understand what they want to achieve, and for some reason nobody has come forward.“ The Institute of Travel & Meetings is in the
same boat, stating: “American Airlines has yet to show ITM officials its direct connect process working in practice, despite several requests, so to us the airline's case is not proven.“ Even other airlines are not exactly sure what
the direct connect future might mean. Paul Wait, general manager of sales for Virgin Atlantic says, “We are watching the situation carefully but I just don't think the benefits are clear. I am not hearing that the full ramifications have been taken into consideration and thought through because, to me, direct connect is an automated way of doing what we did by phone back in the 1970s.“ So, the more things change the more they stay the same?
30 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE 18 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
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