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Airlines seem to be winning battle with GDSs

April 17, 2008 | Online Travel

Today, airlines can continue to take advantage of GDS participation even as they create revenue opportunities outside the GDS environment and openly strengthen strategies that exclude GDSs. TravelWeekly's Arnie Weissmann on how the airlines accomplished to get this superior advantages.

In the fog of the GDS-airline wars during the 2006 contract negotiating season, it was often difficult to conclude which side was getting what it wanted. In some of these staring contests, a few of the GDSs appeared to blink quickly, but in others, notably the final American-Sabre showdown, the deal points that ultimately became known certainly sounded closer to Sabre’s goal (full content guarantees) than what American had said it was after (more distribution flexibility).

But even as those discussions between carriers and GDSs were ongoing, a new issue arose that would redefine the future relationships between the parties: Air Canada’s assertion that it had the right to publish Tango fares exclusively on its Web site because the GDSs were unable to display them as the airline deemed appropriate.

It was a turning point, and in hindsight it appears that, as a group, the airlines might have come out of the last round of negotiations with superior advantages, having won not only financial concessions but, just as importantly, time.

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