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Ectaa’s Michel de Blust: ‘With the unbundling of


airfares you end up having to pay for the ticket, your luggage and your seat.


Airlines call this ‘enhancing the consumer experience’’


Iata and Ectaa clash over airfares ‘discrimination’


Iata claims agents ‘worldwide’ support airlines’ new distribution channels, but agents’ leaders dispute that. Ian Taylor reports


Iata has claimed “travel agencies worldwide” support the introduction of its New Distribution Capability (NDC) and insisted global distribution systems (GDSs) are to blame for the imposition of fees on GDS bookings.


But Michel de Blust, secretary


general of the European travel agents’ and tour operators’ association Ectaa, hit back at airline association Iata, insisting NDC threatens “fare transparency


112 travelweekly.co.uk 6 September 2018


and price comparison”. Iata head of NDC engagement and adoption Olivier Hours joined De Blust in addressing the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism in July in a hearing on ‘Airline distribution channel discrimination’. Hours told the committee


of MEPs: “There is a problem in airline distribution due to a bottleneck between providers and consumers. The bottleneck happens because there are only


three CRSs [GDSs] in the EU.” He argued: “An airline may pay


up to €40 in CRS fees when the total airline fare is often below €100. “On top of high costs, CRS


contracts prevent airlines from distributing content freely. As a consequence, airlines refrain from creating lower fares and this harms the end consumer. If an airline wants freedom to distribute the way it wants, the CRSs roughly double their fees.” Hours insisted: “Airlines are


trying to change distribution for the benefit of the end consumer. NDC will enable the consumer to have more transparency and to


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