NEWS TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS CONTINUED FROM THE BACK
long as we’re commercially rewarded. But that is not available to us now – partially [due to] the airlines, but also partially due to the GDSs. Both have a lot to answer for because we’re their customer and we’re pretty much in the dark. “The airlines are meant to be our partners, yet we get very little cooperation. Most of this [NDC] technology we talk about is not actually working, and that is a challenge. Going back five years, even I thought something would have developed to the point where it works [by now]. “It will work, and we understand why airlines want it, but we don’t have a level playing field. Very little information is available and it’s only available to those with deals [with the airlines] in place. There is a group of agents who are the ‘haves’ and a group who are ‘have nots’.” McLeod added: “The GDSs
are able to promote more ancillaries, but it is still a clunky way of doing it. The airlines are forcing the GDSs’ hand and agents are in the middle wondering what is happening. “We know NDC is a game changer. We accept we’re going to have change. We’re very keen to work with airlines and want to work with technology companies. But we will only do it when it works – because we have to pay for it – and when it works within the processes of a system that has been around for 40-50 years.” Andreas Köster, Lufthansa
senior sales director for the UK and Ireland, urged agents: “Don’t wait for the solution. It won’t fall out of the sky. You have to work with us and the GDSs.” But Deloitte consulting partner Andy Gauld warned: “There is going to be a period of fragmentation across the industry for two, three, maybe five years.”
Travel Weekly Business Breakfast: Experts debate the Future of Airl
Travelport boss counters airline criticism of GDSs
Airline claims that GDSs “have not evolved” to allow carriers to sell fares through agents as they do online are “fundamentally flawed”, according to Travelport UK chief Paul Broughton.
He told the Travel Weekly Business Breakfast: “I may have agreed 10 years ago, but in the last few years that is simply not the case. It’s fundamentally flawed. We have a sophisticated merchandising platform that allows airlines to distribute all the unbundled elements of their products through either the traditional channel or via an API.” An API is an application
programme interface that enables data-transfer between IT systems. GDSs currently take the fares of low-cost carriers via APIs and integrate these with the fares of Iata-member airlines filed with the Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO). Broughton, Travelport managing director for the UK and Ireland, said: “Legacy airlines want the ability to distribute
Indie agents face ‘discrimination’ from some airlines
Airlines are “discriminating” against agents and “testing the boundaries” of regulation on the transparency of computer reservations systems. That is the view of Christoph
Klenner, secretary general of the European Technology & Travel Services Association (Ettsa). Klenner told the Travel
Weekly Business Breakfast: 78
travelweekly.co.uk 12 April 2018
BROUGHTON: ‘The answer is not for everyone to generate their own APIs – that is going back 30 years”
through the traditional ATPCO route as well as through API. That adds another level of complexity. “API distribution is nothing
new for us, [but] every airline that wants to participate in [Iata’s] New Distribution Capability (NDC) has to build its own API.” He insisted: “We embrace NDC.
We’ve announced our roadmap to deliver NDC, [but] this requires collaboration. We can provide the technology, but it requires the airlines to participate to
“A breaking point has been reached. Some airlines have tested the boundaries of the regulatory framework. “We see airlines discriminating against independent distributors. We see GDS surcharges. We see increasing content discrimination, and we see protocols such as NDC. If applied as a standard, NDC is not a bad thing, but if you leverage a protocol to discriminate, that may be a problem.” He noted: “The big airline groups [in Europe] are
distribute that content.” Broughton said: “The channel
is fragmenting, but it can still be brought together in one platform. “Our job is to provide a platform that enables TMCs and agencies to become more effective retailers. Our goal is to present the widest possible content to agencies. “The answer is not for
everyone to generate their own API connections with individual airlines. That is going back 30 years.”
indicating there will be content discrimination.” Klenner quoted a study
commissioned by Ettsa on the impact of airline consolidation on consumers and said: “The bigger an airline gets, the more it is incentivised not to disclose all information to the independent channel. A carrier with strong market power has an advantage in hiding certain content.” A second study, on “the true
cost” of direct and indirect distribution, rebutted “ludicrous claims about the costs of indirect distribution”, he said.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
