Air France-KLM confirms GDS levy from April
Phil Davies
phil.davies@travelweekly.co.uk
Air France-KLM confirmed it will impose an unspecified distribution surcharge on GDS sales from April 1.
The surcharge will not apply to
travel agency sales via Iata’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) connection and to Air France and KLM direct-sales channels. The group said: “To best serve
customers, Air France-KLM is embracing NDC, an enriched Iata messaging standard allowing the distribution of rich content and personalised offers, and investing in options for travel partners to access, book and sell it. “At the same time, to adapt to
market circumstances and to further improve its efficiency, Air France-KLM will implement a distribution surcharge on GDS sales, effective from April 1, 2018.” A “complete re-engineering”
of the group’s Flying Blue loyalty scheme was unveiled on Monday
“Air France-KLM is embracing NDC to adapt to market circumstances”
and is due to be launched on April 1. The group aims to “enrich the
travel experience, stimulate the loyalty towards our airlines and maximise the attractiveness”. The disclosures came as Air
France-KLM reported a 39% rise in operating profits of just over €1 billion for the summer quarter. Passenger carryings rose by
5.1% to almost 28 million with an improved load factor up 1.7 percentage points to 89.2%. The group reported a strong
premium-class long-haul performance with unit revenues up by 8.3%, while economy class was up by 3.1%. The improvement was mainly
driven by a strong recovery in Asia with unit revenue up 8.8%, and
AIR FRANCE-KLM: Operating profits for summer were up 39%
Latin America up 12.1%. Chairman Jean-Marc Janaillac
said: “The strong operating performance achieved by the group in the third-quarter reflects a sustained execution on our strategic priorities, as well as a robust business environment translated into solid traffic and unit revenue trends. “We continued to move forward,
notably with the expansion of our network of strategic alliances and the implementation of a new distribution model. “At the same time, we
relentlessly pursued our efforts to strengthen our financial structure. “All of these accomplishments demonstrate that Air France-KLM is well on track to deliver on our ‘trust together’ strategic priorities of growing revenues and improving competitiveness.”
Skyscanner plans to offer in-trip content
Global travel search site Skyscanner is to provide in-trip content through
Trip.com. The plan follows the Edinburgh-based firm’s Chinese
owner Ctrip acquiring
Trip.com, a Silicon Valley-based travel planning and local discovery app and site. The technology, community and content behind
Trip.com will enable Skyscanner to introduce in-trip content, such as personalised recommendations, to travellers. Skyscanner chief technology officer Bryan Dove
said: “Our aim has always been to make travel search as simple as possible, providing travellers with
everything they need in one place. Adding
Trip.com’s content to Skyscanner’s offering represents the next step towards that goal.”
Trip.com co-founder and chief executive Travis
Katz added: “Skyscanner shares our focus on mobile and our passion for empowering people to have amazing travel experiences. We’re excited to work with Skyscanner to offer a single resource to travellers around the world that meets all their travel needs.”
Trip.com’s team of 30 will continue to operate from
their current office locations, alongside co-founders Katz and Ori Zaltzman.
After the storm
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Hurricanes lash Sabre but profits double to $91m
Sabre survived hurricanes in the US and Caribbean to report its net profits for the summer quarter more than doubled to $91 million. The GDS’s booking volumes fell
by 1.9% in North America and by the same figure in Latin America in the three months to September 30. However, bookings grew by 16%
in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and by 10.8% in Asia Pacific. Overall revenue rose by 7.3%
year on year to $900 million. The number of airline passengers boarded was up 7.7%. Sabre president and chief
executive Sean Menke said: “Overall, it was a solid quarter in terms of both performance and execution, which we expect will position us well to achieve our guidance for the full year. “An end-to-end NDC-enabled solution should allow airlines to leverage deep data-sets including customer profile, market and ambient information to create dynamic customised offers that resonate with travellers across all distribution channels. “It’s not about direct versus
indirect; it’s about facilitating retailing across all channels. We expect the GDS, and our agency customers, will continue to have an important role to play.”
9 November 2017
travelweekly.co.uk 63
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