The latest news from the GDS world, including new airline agreements, product news and initiatives.

2 September 2010:

• Philippines low cost carrier to unbundle fares with Sabre [full story]
• Travelport points finger at airlines over ancillary development [full story]

1 September 2010:

• Sabre sells Nexion subsidiary to travel management firm Tzell. Sabre bought Nexicon, a host agency for travel agents, in 2003. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
• Amadeus releases H1 2010 results [full story]

30 August 2010:

• Sabre added features to its new Sabre Red desktop, including new search capabilities from Sabre Cruises, Tnooz editorial content through AgentStream, and Virtually There flight-status notifications.

28 August 2010:

• Amadeus seeks to move in on ITA Software turf — US market [full story]

27 August 2010:

• Amadeus and SNCF pledge to improve rail ticket distribution. The pair are introducing a new system to agencies to allow to book French rail fares and Rail Europe tickets, using existing Amadeus Selling Platform and PNR technology.
• Travelport – the waiting game [full story]

24 August 2010:

• DerbySoft and Amadeus unite to give travel agents access to mid-range and independent hotels in China. More than 103,000 travel agencies in the Amadeus network will be able to source and book properties on the Shanghai-based DerbySoft system.

20 August 2010:

• Amadeus and Deutsche Bahn reveal Chinese agency plans. The pair have collaborated to open the German rail giant’s first travel agency in China, using booking technology from Amadeus to sell DB tickets and other European rail providers.

19 August 2010:

• Travelport appoints new airline directors for Australia-New Zealand and South East Asia. Ex-Travelport director of sales for Australia, Ailsa Brown will be based in Sydney and takes responsibility for commercial opportunities and ancillary revenue as part of the new Universal Desktop programme. Chan Tze Yuan will have a similar role, based Singapore, covering Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and Brunei.

18 August 2010:

• Amadeus and OAG agree to extend existing technology and intelligence partnership. The deal means the pair share technology and data for schedules, flight status, and end-to-end travel information and other selected services.
• Travelport appoints new country manager for Australia and New Zealand. Sean Cummins joins from AOT Group and previously held positions at Amadeus, Flairview and Constellation Hotel Group.

17 August 2010:

• Tzell Travel Group partners with Sabre Travel Network for mobile services. The US-based corporate travel agency will use Sabre’s TripCase system for trip management and alert services for clients.

16 August 2010:

• Sabre Travel Network partners with Kanoo Travel in the Middle East. Kanoo, one of the latest travel agency groups in the Middle East, will use the Sabre GDS to supply content and other technology to agents in Iraq.

12 August 2010:

• Travelport plans a $250 million private offering of senior notes, which would be used to reduce debt and for business development, the company says.

• Cathay Pacific and Travelport ink five-year distribution deal. The standard agreement gives Apollo, Worldspan and Galileo-connected agents full access to the airline’s content and fares.

9 August 2010

• Amadeus debuted its Amadeus One open technology platform at the National Business Travel Association conference in Houston today. Amadeus says the platform enables travel agency users of its Web-based desktop to use an “an open, service-oriented architecture” to integrate existing and new IT tools and service.

• Also at the NBTA gathering, Sabre presented its Sabre Red Business Intelligence product, which blends TRX’s TRAVELTRAX data reporting and consolidation features with historical data from Sabre’s database.

6 August 2010

• Sabre’s GetThere unit developed a portal so clients can tab through travel, meetings, expense and social networking offerings using a single sign-on, the company says.

• Travel Management Partners signed a new long-term agreement with Travelport GDS.

• Travelport’s GTA unit appointed David Painter chief operating officer, effective immediately. Based in London and reporting to GTA President and CEO Ken Esterow, Painter will handle global hotel contracting and inbound operations, Travelport says.

5 August 2010

• TravelPort reported its second quarter 2010 earnings. In its GDS business, net revenue increased 1% to $520 million, compared to the year-earlier period, and EBITDA for the segment dropped 4% to $160 million. See the full results press release here, and a related story here.

4 August 2010:

• Travelport extended its content agreement with United Airlines through 2013 and says travel agents connected to its GDSs will be able to book the airline’s Economy Plus seating later this year. Full story here.

• Sabre says it began the global rollout of its new agency platform, the Sabre Red Workspace.

• Amadeus North America bolsters commercial team with new VP Darrin Deck. Ex-TRX vice president of product operations, Deck joins as VP for sales and account management covering both the US and Canada, based in Chicago.

3 August 2010:

• Joint technology product from Travelport-Rearden Commerce secures Nippon Express as first customer. The technology is a Travelport-branded version of the Reasons Personal Assistant system, giving TMCs access to travel management tools as well as existing air, car hire and hotel services.

2 August 2010:

• Travelport signs multi-year agreement with Kuoni. The extended deal with Travelport covers 11 countries and gives the long haul tour operator access to a number of Galileo applications and ticketing systems.
• Amadeus integrates Hotel Shopper tool for Vacation Link users in North America. The service is boosted by partnering with CCRA Travel Solutions, giving agents access to over 160,000 hotel properties worldwide.
• Travelport agrees air fare distribution partnership with Proflight Zambia. Full ticket and distribution content from the carrier will be available for five years for Galileo-connected agents.

30 July 2010:

• Russian travel agency chain Sputnik signs agreement with Travelport for GDS services. The deal was sealed through Travelport’s Russian travel partner and online flight search provider AlpOnline and sees Sputnik agencies gain access to low-cost carrier and scheduled fares.

28 July 2010:

• Travelport renews long-term relationship with Cassidy Travel. The Ireland-based travel agency group will extend its 17-year agreement with Travelport to use the Worldspan GDS platform for air, hotel and car hire products.

27 July 2010:

• Standard message: Sabre, Amadeus, Travelport step in line over Open Axis [full story]
• Sabre claims huge jump in revenue for Mamaison after technology switch. The chain apparently saw a 100% leap after switching ten properties across Central and Eastern Europe as a result of changing to the SynXis CRS by Sabre Hospitality Solutions.

23 July 2010:

• GetThere agrees seat sale strategy with United Airlines. The Sabre-run GetThere will handle United’s Economy Plus range from later this year, a decision Sabre claims is a first for any travel management system.

22 July 2010:

• Amadeus and Premier Inn sign global distribution deal.  The agreement sees 580 of the budget hotel chain’s properties made available through the Amadeus GDS across its worldwide network of agencies.
• Study: Winners in airline ancillary revenue [full story]

21 July 2010:

• Sabre Travel Network signs agreement with US-based Tzell Travel Group and Travel Leaders Corporate. The two agencies are part of the Travel Leaders Group and have penned a long term technology agreement with Sabre, including use of its new Sabre Red initiative.

20 July 2010:

• Amadeus partners with Airconomy to launch market intelligence service. The pair have created a product, Amadeus Total Demand by Airconomy, to provide market data for airlines, airports and travel agencies on routes around the world, including distribution from low-cost carriers and via direct sales.

19 July 2010:

• Travelport announces investment in Bahrain. The company has taken over distribution of its Galileo platform following end of agreement with Middle East Computer Services (part of Al Safar Group) and will service existing clients from new operation in Manama.

15 July 2010:

• Avis Budget Group and Travelport sign multi-year distribution agreement. The deal hands agents on the Galileo and Worldspan platform full access to ABG’s operations in over 70 different countries around the world.
• Travelport gushing over strong start to Leisure agent portal [full story]

13 July 2010:

• Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts renews distribution agreement with Sabre. The chain of 66 Shangri-La properties around the world will continue to use Sabre’s SynXis Central Reservation System, part of Sabre Hospitality Solutions, claiming a 35% increase in GDS revenue year-on-year.

10 July 2010:

• Thomas Cook will use Travelport for new European online travel agency [full story]

9 July 2010:

• Travelport and Continental sign full GDS agreement [full story and analysis]

8 July 2010:

• Sabre acquires flight crew management system [full story]
• Travelport unveils major airfare partnership for Russia [full story]

6 July 2010:

• Travelport appoints new country manager for Spain. Antonio Loureiro comes with 18 years experience in the GDS sector and will also cover Travelport’s interrests in Portugal and Brazil.
• Amadeus to trial new ancillary services platform through CorsairFly [full story]
• Sabre Travel Network signs Hogg Robinson Group to TripCase mobile programme. HRG will give clients access to a dedicated TripCase travel itinerary platform allowing them to manage travel plans and communicate directly with agents.

5 July 2010:

• Travelport named as preferred GDS partner for TTA Worldchoice. The agreement is an extension of a nine-year  relationship with Worldchoice and now includes the agency members of the Travel Trust Association.
• Amadeus bolsters Ireland and Scotland teams. Siobhan Bocket joins as commercial manager after 11 years with American Holidays in Northern Ireland.

3 July 2010:

• Amadeus signs three-year partnership with Kanoo Travel. The three-year partnership with Kanoo, a major corporate travel agency in the Middle East, includes use of the Amadeus E-Travel Management software to process bookings and fares.

1 July 2010:

• Senior executive appointments at Sabre Airlines Solutions. Ex-McKinsey consultant Sanjay Nanda joins as senior vice president of consulting and solutions delivery; Sabre veteran Mark Silagy moves to SAS team to become senior vice president of customer care and support; Peter Morowski (ex-Borland, Dell and Novell) becomes senior vice president of airline products development.

30 June 2010:

• Sabre inks technology deal with Avior Airlines. The airline will be the first airline to use the Electronic Miscellaneous Document element of the wider Sabre merchandising platform  [full story]

25 June 2010:

• Travelport IPO resurrection gaining momentum, New York replaces London [full story]
• Web agency accidently posts Travelport agency project screenshots on Facebook [full story]

22 June 2010:

• Sabre Hospitality Solutions claims 1,000 hotel properties have moved to its SynXis CRS in the past 12 months. Major chains making the switch include Preferred Hotel Group, Kimpton Hotels and Thon Hotels.

21 June 2010:

• Zonder and Travelport ink GDS distribution deal for vacation rentals. The deal will see the Worldspan GDS take real-time availability and booking for the Zonder portfolio of properties to agent desktops.

17 June 2010:

• Amadeus creates two vice president positions for EMEA. Angel Gallego and Holger Taubmann will be VPs for Western Europe, Middle East and Africa and Northern, Central and Eastern Europe respectively.

10 June 2010:

• Marriott and Travelport sign long-term agreement. The five-year deal sees the hotel chain implement a direct-connect to the Worldpsan and Galileo GDSs, allowing booking for all Travelport connected agents to 3,400 properties around the world.

9 June 2010:

• Webjet builds new e-pricing product in conjunction with Travelport. The system, created with Travelport Galileo, is designed to give Webjet’s Australian customers the ability to book cheaper international flights where they do not mind an extra stopover.

8 June 2010:

• LAN Airlines signs distribution agreement with Travelport. The deal, which begins immediately, will see all LAN content streamed through the Worldspan and Galileo GDS to connected agents.

5 June 2010:

• Travelport introduces FlexiShopper tool for Taiwan and Hong Kong agents. The FlexiShopper system plugs into the existing Galileo desktop and is meant to improve the process for how agents search for flights.

3 June 2010:

• Amadeus tech survey of Irish travel agents: 80% of business agents spend majority of the day modifying bookings and processing sales; 90% of leisure agents spend “some time” or “too much time” researching new bookings.
• Rearden Commerce and Travelport sign technology agreement for the US and Canada. The partnership will see the Rearden platform added to the suite of corporate bookings tools, including Traversa.

31 May 2010:

• Travelport shuffles GDS executive line-up in Japan and Korea. Ex-Worldspan business development manager in the Pacific, Hiroshi Shimizu becomes commercial head in Japan, South Korea and Guam. He will also oversee airline, hotel, rail and car hire relationships for Travelport GDS in the same countries and Fiji.

26 May 2010:

• Travelport and Statesman Travel sign technology and distribution agreement. The London-based travel management company (sales of $1.3 billion a year) will continue to use the Galileo GDS and also plans to implement the Travelport Universal Desktop later this year.

20 May 2010:

• Touchdown Holidays and Sabre Holdings seal long-term technology pact. The UK-based travel provider for industry employees will primarily use Sabre’s Web Services technology to improve its online proposition.

19 May 2010:

• Sabre Holdings signs agreement with Travellers Choice. The Australia-based company will partner with the Pacific division of Sabre on a long term agreement to supply content across its network of agents.

18 May 2010:

• Travelport plots intriguing move, buys travel search engine Sprice (full story)

13 May 2010:

• Accor and Sabre unite for distribution deal. Sabre Hospitality Solutions to connect 4,000 Accor properties around Europe to the Sabre GDS using the tech firms DCX system.

14 May 2010:

• Public company Amadeus, with Opodo in hand, is back reporting quarterly results [full story]
• Amadeus Q1 2010 results – bitesize summary [full story]

12 May 2010:

• Amadeus happy with Opodo ownership as rumour mill turns [full story]
• Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants signs distribution agreement with Sabre Holdings. The US-based chain has 49 properties across the country and will use the SynXis Central Reservation System provided Sabre Hospitality Solutions to push rates and availability to OTAs and the GDS.

7 May 2010:

• Amadeus appoints new commercial director. Based in Crawley, UK, Scott Davies joins from British Airways where he has spent the last ten years in a number of positions across agency and corporate divisions.
• Sabre and Carlson Hotels sign booking technology agreement. The hotel chain will be a “beta customer” for the Sabre Hospitality Solutions‘ Direct Comment XML platform, plugging into 55,000 travel agent locations worldwide.

6 May 2010:

• Middle East airline Emirates and Travelport sign distribution deal. The content agreement covers Galileo, Worldspan and Apollo and runs for five years.

5 May 2010:

• Travelport announces the promotion of Kurt Ekert to chief commercial officer. Ekert, who takes over on June 1, is currently chief operating officer for GTA by Travelport and succeeds Armin Meier who is leaving after two years to pursue “a new business venture outside the travel industry”.

4 May 2010:

• Amadeus claims record figures for its Altea Suite system. In 2009 the data centre processed 238 million passengers, a jump of 23% y/y.
• Travelport’s GTA division signs distribution deal with Marriott International. The partnership covers the Marriott, Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn, Fairfield Inn, TownePlaces and Springhill brands and will be available to all GTA agent and operator customers.

28 April 2010:

• Travelport announces Michael Buhr as chief executive for Consumer and New Ventures. Buhr was most recently entrepreneur-in-residence at venture capital firm Shasta Ventures, adivising companies in the areas of consumer internet, online discovery and mobile.
• Amadeus sets IPO price at Euro 11 per share, gears up for The Big Day [full story]

27 April 2010:

• Hotel H2o signs software deal with Amadeus. The new luxury hotel in the Philippine capital of Manila, part of the WorldHotels collection, will use the property management IT system from Amadeus.

26 April 2010:

• Sabre and Aeroflot extend existing reservation handling agreement. The airline will also use the SabreSonic Web system to handle online bookings.

20 April 2010:

• Sabre pushes Traveller Security and Data Suite into Asia Pacific region. The move coincides with recent events in Europe as travel firms tracked and reptriated customers following the European ash cloud crisis.

19 April 2010:

• Travelport releases upgraded version of CrossCheck Travel Enterprise (CCTE). The system is used by travel agents in Australia and New Zealand and provides mid/back office tools from accounting and financial reporting through to itineraries, bookings and customer relationship management (CRM).

15 April 2010:

• Travelport signs distribution deals for Azerbaijan and Georgia. The Galileo and Worldspan platforms will be available through an agreement with Galileo Caucasus.

14 April 2010:

• Amadeus reveals details of IPO [full story]

13 April 2010:

• Travelport travel review service launches in the Middle East. The roll-out of Travelport Opinions, a system for travel agents and tour operators to share holiday and property reviews and developed by Vinivi, follows launches first in France and then the UK & Ireland.

9 April 2010:

• TransHotel and Amadeus unite to create Hotel Store for Indian travel agencies. The portal will reside in the existing Amadeus Selling Platform and give agents access to the Transhotel portfolio. Data will be automatically included in CheckMyTrip.

8 April 2010:

• Amadeus claims increase in market share in Asia-Pacific to 33% of air bookings. 2009 report also says the company achieved 45% share in Africa and the Middle East.

7 April 2010:

• Amadeus announces renewals and a new deal for its Ireland division. WeTravel2.com is a business win for Amadeus while travel agencies Navan Travel, Travel Focus, East Cork Travel, and Kanes Travel are extensions of existing deals.
• Travelport and IBM sign software integration deal [full story].

6 April 2010:

• British Airways and Sabre Airline Solutions extend GDS distribution agreement [full story]
• Stargate Cyber Active and Travelport renew partnership for the Middle East. Tthe multi-year agreement gives Stargate exclusive rights to distribute Worldspan technology and services to travel agencies in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

3 April 2010:

• One Stop Shop Group selects Galileo for GDS services in India. The Travelport-run platform is the supplier of services from InterGlobe Technologies Quotient in the subcontinent and will power OSS flight and rail booking systems.

1 April 2010:

• Travelport and ATPI sign extension to content distribution agreement. The travel management company serves customers in 13 countries in Europe and the US and the deal will include technology to recent ATPI acquisition marine travel specialist Instone International.

31 March 2010:

• Travelport and Copa Airlines sign new global content distribution deal. The Latin American airline will push all fares and availability through the Worldspan and Galileo systems to connected agents.

3o March 2010:

• Sabre Holdings agrees to buy Icelandic revenue management firm Calidris. The company will become part of the Sabre Airline Solutions division and be made available immediately to 300 airlines on the Sabre system.
• Travelport signs partnership with Global Travel Services to distribute GDS services to travel agencies in Uzbekistan. The agreement is an extension of an existing deal to run GDS services through GTS in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

29 March 2010:

• Travelport launches new Galileo desktop for Hong Kong agents. The Desktop 2.0 Enhanced Customer Service tool is bi-lingual (Chinese and English) uses a drop-box system to collate data before sending to a central customer unit. The service will be rolled out across Asia later.

25 March 2010:

• Siteworx and Sabre Hospitality Solutions unite for Mandarin Oriental Group mobile website project. The site allows customers to search and book across the Mandarin network of properties and is available on smartphone and other devices.

24 March 2010:

• WestJet to sell seat assignments through Travelport [full story]
• Amadeus launches online booking engine for Myanmar Airways. The system uses the Amadeus e-Retail, Web e-Ticketing and Payment Gateway product and is aimed at opening up the airline’s domestic and international routes to a wider audience.

23 March 2010:

• Travelport and the first low-cost carrier outside of South Africa, Fly540, sign content distribution deal. Fares and schedules will be available on both the Worldspan and Galileo platforms.
• Amadeus announces 2009 full-year results [top-line summary]
• Air India partners with Sabre to integrate airline optimisation technology. The carrier will be equipped with Sabre AirVision and Sabre AirCentre suites allowing it to move towards a fully integrated flight control system.

19 March 2010:

• Trailfinders and Travelport agree multi-year deal for the Galileo system. The agreement is an extension of its existing relationship.
• Amadeus and TellMeMore sign agreement to handle the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility programme. The agreement, which aims to promote joint projects to contribute to the economic and social development of disadvantaged areas and social segments, is aimed in particular at enhancing capabilities and competitiveness in tourism in Latin America, Africa and Asia-Pacific.

18 March 2010:

• CCRA Travel Solutions selected by Amadeus to power hotel content on the Amadeus Vacation Link brand. Vacation Link is a booking portal for leisure travel agents in the US and Canada to book vacation travel products.

17 March 2010:

• Amadeus launches mobile version of CheckMyTrip [full story]
• Travelport announces 2009 full-year results [top-line summary]
• Sabre Hospitality Solutions claims new client Red Carnation has seen a massive 57% uplift in bookings since integrating new voice software and call centre tools for the hotel chain. The average daily rate has increased by 4% over the same period since late-2009.

16 March 2010:

• Amadeus hires Scott Alvis as new senior vice president for its airline division in the Americas. Alvis previously ran his own airline distribution consultancy business and had worked for Sabre including heading the company’s SynXis programme.
• Ness Technologies and Amadeus complete first year of partnership with news of 150 people joining the programme. Software support firm Ness works with the R&D wing of Amadeus on ecommerce projects such as its CheckMyTrip tool.

15 March 2010:

• Middle East airline Etihad and Travelport sign full content agreement. The five-year deal gives Worldspan and Galileo-connected agents access to all of the airline’s published inventory of flights and fares.

14 March 2010:

• Travel agents in United Arab Emirates handed SMS capability through Amadeus. Travel agents able to alert travellers with details about itineraries, e-tickets and flight information.

12 March 2010:

• Shearings Holidays and Amadeus sign GDS content distribution package. The three-year agreement will give Shearings worldwide access to fares, schedules and inventories across the Amadeus system.

10 March 2010:

• Amadeus launches LinkHotel, a distribution service for small to medium size hotels and groups. LinkHotel also provides reservation tools, marketing services, and commission handling.
• Amadeus division Traveltainment acquires online marketing company Pixell. The Bonn, Germany-based company handles advertising for clients through SEO, SEM, display marketing, direct marketing and affiliate marketing as well as Twitter, social networks or mobile devices.
• Travelport unveils Opinions review system in the UK and Ireland. The service, which had a successful launch in France in mid-2009, allows agents to review hotel properties and ask questions of other experts on the system.

9 March 2010:

• Net Trans and Travelport ink deal to provide hotel commission recovery to Travelport agents around the world. The Net Trans system allows agents to see how much commission has been paid or owed by a supplier as well as managing processes between the two.

8 March 2010:

• Best Western International signs enhanced contract with GTA by Travelport to boost distribution of the chain’s property descriptions
• LOT Polish Airlines and Amadeus agree extension to technology partnership to extend to the Star Alliance Common IT platform inventory system. The new agreement will complete in in the second half of 2010 and also see an upgrade to its customer management system and use of the wider Star Alliance platform.
• Sabre reveals programme with data management firm iWay Software. The Airline Solutions division of Sabre has worked with iWay to audit and analyse the Airport Data Intelligence programme, a system which tracks capacity and other details of every flight in the world.

6 March 2010:

• Bangkok Airways and Amadeus unite for travel agency promotion. Agents booking tickets on the airline through the Amadeus GDS are also entered in a prize draw. Both organisations claim an immediate increase in bookings following the launch – the promotion runs until 31 May 2010.

5 March 2010:

• Agencia Abreu seals multi-year deal with Travelport to use the Galileo GDS system. The Portuguese travel agency, one of the largest in the country and in existence since 1840, has 120 offices around the country and also a sizeable presence in the US and Brazil.

4 March 2010:

• Amadeus signs agreement to evaluate use of the Altea Customer Management System with Asiana Airlines. The Memo of Understanding will explore for future use of the Altea system for reservation, inventory and departure control processes across the Asiana network.

The debate over ancillary services and who is responsible for developing relevant technology for it appears to have taken another twist this week.

In a somewhat novel move by a legacy GDS, Shelley Beasley, Travelport’s point person in the Asia-Pacific region, has gone out on a limb and attacked the low cost carriers for not wanting to pay for the custom development necessary to support ancillary services.

Indeed she is suggesting that the LCCs just don’t want to pay for the cost of the development at all.

At this week’s TravelTech conference, hosted by Martin Kelly in Sydney, Australia, Beasley (managing director for Pacific and head of solutions support in Asia-Pacific) went on the offensive.

Following negative comments on GDSs capability to handle advanced services and to keep up with the demands of LCCs by Jetstar and Air Asia in recent weeks in the region, Beasley countered in a spirited defense of the traditional GDS service model.

Describing the adverse statements as “a smokescreen” she says LCCs are reluctant to spend money on developing a system that handles their complex way of selling.

“The industry has not worked to a standard,” she says, adding a common solution “has to happen.”

Presumably this implies that the LCCs should be paying the GDSs for custom development despite having the capability functioning well on their own sites and in their own infrastructure – in many cases on systems owned and managed by GDS companies.

This seems to be a common cry from the GDSs to the point where it would seem they are reading from the same script.

Perhaps this is somewhat of a jaded argument. It would appear that the GDSs have not invested enough into the infrastructure to support a form of product that has been in the market for more than a few years.

This argument also does not hold up in the light of history. In previous major changes to the infrastructure of airline distribution such as ATB – the GDSs did not charge the airlines for this development.

In the end the agents had to pay for the expensive ATB2 printers either directly or via incentive payments from the airlines.

Depending on your view, it could become a chicken vs egg discussion.

The low cost carriers generally eschewed the use of GDS distribution. Indeed the most successful of them all in terms of profitability is Ryanair and it still steadfastly refuses to use intermediaries to sell its products.

It argues that if the product is to be sold that way then the consumer will be disadvantaged.

Other low cost carriers either charge for content distribution, such as Norwegian, or limit the product that is available for distribution by the more expensive channel – for example GOL.

Thus should the GDSs be providing solutions that support ancillary revenues at their cost or do they sit this one out and wait for a standard?

The airlines appear unwilling to wait to support a GDS sponsored standard but instead are coalescing around a standard of their own – the OpenAxis standard.

But the argument does not just affect LCCs. Full service network carriers such as American Airlines and Air Canada have also adopted the same position.

Clearly for the majority of carriers, adopting ancillary revenue product sales is a profit winning solution.

Most estimates for all of 2010 put ancillary revenues in the $5 billion plus range.

Total profits for the whole industry are (per IATA estimates) only $2.5 billion. In contrast, 2010 GDS fees are likely to be in the range of $10 billion to $12 billion range for the whole industry.

Who will be the winners in this battle? There is clearly a lot at stake.

But it would seem that the GDSs are deploying solutions. Amadeus has announced adoption already.

Even Travelport itself has slated release of enhancements in the September timeframe. Therefore it would seem the protests are ringing a little hollow.

Google could be facing a series of awkward regulatory hurdles in Europe even if its acquisition of ITA Software is approved by US antitrust officials.

Noises emerging this week from Brussels, home to the European Commission, suggest the search giant could be facing scrutiny from members as to whether a beefing up of its position in travel after acquiring ITA Software needs to trigger a shake up of wider regulatory powers.

The problem Google could potentially face is not around the subject of competition, as its acquisition of ITA and the travel tech company’s client base is predominantly a North American issue.

Investigators at the Commission are beginning to be concerned that Google’s dominance of the search market in Europe, coupled with how it decides to use the ITA technology, could seriously impact on consumers and their ability to compare air fares.

There are now increasing calls for the Commission to undertake a study as to whether Google should be seen in the same light as other air data firms, namely the global distribution systems.

A source who wished to remain unnamed but is well-placed in the regulatory world of Brussels, says:

“In a GDS environment, the display neutrality concept enshrined in the GDS Code of Conduct addresses this issue. If Google is going to provide services that are similar to those of GDSs, then probably safeguards similar to those in the GDS Code of Conduct should be imposed on Google.”

Such a move would be a enormous leap for those that administer the GDS Code of Conduct and how regulation of the distribution of airfare data across the continent is handled.

Placing Google alongside the GDSs (as it has done so itself with the travel technology ecosystem chart) within a regulatory framework also has the opportunity to trigger other major permutations.

The push to include Google in such a framework is considered by a number of those close to the situation to be primarily a GDS-led drive.

But Google could argue that if it is subject to such oversight by regulators then other travel search providers (B2C and B2B) should be included – a prospect likely to keep lobbyists in Brussels tied up for years.

For its part, Google remains focused on the competition element of the deal and will not address the Code of Conduct issue, saying:

“The [ITA] transaction is subject to normal pre-merger notification procedures in the United States only. ITA Software’s European revenues aren’t large enough to warrant European regulatory review.

“We think this combination will benefit travelers as well as those seeking their business, but closer scrutiny has been one consequence of our success, and on that basis we wouldn’t be surprised if there were regulatory review before the deal closes.”

An alternative and radical position could be that if commissioners decide Google is not to be included in the regulatory framework then the same powers should be relaxed for the GDSs as well.

A Travelport official says:

“Given that there are so many factors in relation to the potential Google/ITA acquisition that remain to be resolved and/or announced, it would be inappropriate for Travelport to speculate on these specific questions.”

Sabre declined to comment and Amadeus is discussing internally with its legal team how to respond.

Amadeus released its H1 2010 results this morning. A summary is as follows:

• Net revenue – Euro 1,379.3 million (up 11.9% from Euro 1,232.6 million y/y).
• EBITDA – Euro 556.7 million (up 19.9% from Euro 464.2 million y/y).
• Adjusted profit – Euro 246.8 million (up 38% from Euro 178.8 million y/y).

Divisions:

• GDS revenue – Euro 1,037.0 million (up 9.8% from Euro 944.9 million y/y).
• IT revenue – Euro 299.9 million (up 20.9% from Euro 248.0 million y/y).
• Opodo revenue – Euro 53.7 million (up 5.8% from Euro 50.8 million y/y).

David Jones, president and CEO of Amadeus, says:

“These results are underpinned by an encouraging growth in distribution bookings compared with the same period last year, coupled with the continuing evolution of our IT business.

“Our transaction-based model is both robust and profitable, and has shown that it can quickly benefit from a recovery in travel worldwide. We look forward to the remainder of the year with confidence.”

The proposed merger of Chile-based LAN Airlines and Brazil’s TAM could have an impact on GDS and airline-alliance relationships.

TAM migrated to the Amadeus reservations system in 2009, and although the LAN res system is currently an Amadeus-Resiber hybrid, LAN revealed in early 2010 that it had signed a mulityear agreement to transition to Sabre as its reservations system provider.

Although it might seemingly make sense for the merged airlines to remain on the Amadeus system, presumably there would be signficant penalties if LAN were to attempt to back out of its Sabre contract.

Of the LAN-TAM merger announcement, Sabre spokeswoman Nancy St. Pierre says: “We don’t expect the merger to impact LAN’s migration to SabreSonic Customer Sales and Service.”

The migration had been slated for a 2011 implementation.

Asked if there had been any delay in development work, St. Pierre says: “Everything is going according to plan.”

Another wrinkle in the merger is that LAN is a member of oneworld while TAM belongs to the rival Star Alliance.

The merged airline would make for a huge carrier in Latin America and the tug of war between the alliances and the GDS fallout, if any, should be interesting.

Indian online travel agency Cleartrip has accused Travelocity of a “misconceived and baseless” complaint after its CEO was arrested by Indian authorities over a data breach.

Stuart Crighton was subject to a procedural arrest by Indian police and was released on bail immediately at a facility in Gurgaon.

The case centres on a complaint (known as a First Information Report, FIR) filed by Travelocity India against Cleartrip and others, with Crighton accused of conniving with senior officials of a company known as Desiya Online Distribution to steal data.

Crighton was arrested alongside Amit Taneja, former-CEO of Desiya, a company bought by TravelGuru in December 2007 and subsequently part of a larger acquisition of TravelGuru by Travelocity in August 2009.

Travelocity alleges Taneja and two others passed information to Cleartrip.

A report in India has Cleartrip accusing Travelocity of “an attempt by a large global company to abuse India’s judicial system to hinder a local Indian competitor”.

Officially the agency says:

“We, at Cleartrip, believe that the FIR filed by Travelocity is misconceived and baseless. Cleartrip has always committed itself to the highest standards of transparency and integrity with respect to our customers and in everything we do.We, at Cleartrip, believe that the FIR filed by Travelocity is misconceived and baseless.”

Travelocity has yet to comment.

A number of those familiar with the case suggest the latest action – purely a procedural one in Indian law but a dramatic one for the CEO of a top three OTA in the country – is by far from the end of the matter and the outcome is extremely uncertain.

Tnooz and Sabre Travel Network have agreed to a content partnership where Tnooz articles will appear in AgentStream, Sabre’s online community for travel agents.

Under the agreement, Sabre will promote Tnooz editorial content on the AgentStream homepage, and the stories will appear within a Tnooz Group on AgentStream, where agent members can read and discuss them.

Tnooz also will contribute a monthly feature for AgentStream.

The partnership gives Tnooz the opportunity to expand its reach within the travel agency community, and enables Sabre to better inform AgentStream users about trends in online travel and technology.

“Tnooz covers travel tech for all points of view in the travel industry,” says Gene Quinn, Tnooz CEO. “We are pleased to join AgentStream and Sabre in delivering news and analysis to travel agents, who are the trusted human interface between travelers and their destinations.”

“With so much going on in the travel industry, and so many different channels to get information, it can be hard for agencies to stay on top of relevant industry news,” adds Chris Kroeger, senior vice president of marketing, Sabre Travel Network.

“Our new agreement with Tnooz provides our AgentStream community members with nearly real-time updates on the latest travel industry news and is part of our ongoing commitment to provide our agency customers with the tools they need to be effective and efficient in their jobs, and enhance the service they provide customers.”

Organized around agents’ profiles in the system, AgentStream features a question and answer center for agent collaboration, gives members the ability to form groups around subjects they are interested in, and also provides the ability for AgentStream members to message one another.

Launched in 2008, AgentStream is open to all travel agents, regardless of GDS affiliation or non-affiliation. Some 70% of its 3,100 active members are Sabre subscribers.

With a presence in the US, the UK and the Middle East, AgentStream plans in the fourth quarter to launch beta websites in Latin America, and Australia-New Zealand.

Sabre’s chief executive called on the U.S. Transporation Dept. “to advocate and even mandate” that airline ancillary services be available in all distribution channels, including GDSs.

Addressing the National Business Travel Association conference in Houston as he was introducing former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Sabre chairman and CEO Sam Gilliland noted that a provision in the pending FAA Reauthorization Act would require airlines to disclose fees for unbundled services on their own websites as well as in the GDSs.

Separately, Gilliland said, the DOT is taking comments on whether a new rule should require such steps toward fee transparency.

Sabre has teamed with the other major GDSs, travel management companies, online travel agencies and a few airlines to develop new XML standards for ancillary services distribution, Gilliland said.

“But in order for this whole process to remain transparent, you need to be very clear with your suppliers about making these services available through your preferred channels, which in the vast majority of cases are the GDS and travel management companies,” Gilliland told the NBTA audience.

For consumers, this would mean that their travel agencies would be able to book the same unbundled services that lots of airlines offer exclusively on their websites or over the phone.

Gilliland’s call for the DOT to mandate that ancillary services be distributed in the GDS channel presumably found a welcome audience among TMCs and corporations in attendance, but it likely doesn’t sit well with some airlines.

Apart from it internal channels, American Airlines, for instance, was slated last month to begin distributing its ancillary services exclusively through AA Direct Connect via subcontractor Farelogix. American says the GDSs would have to come to terms with the airline during 2011 negotiations to be able to access these ancillary services, and it’s American’s position that the GDSs would have to connect to Farelogix to do so.

And, while the GDSs are developing their own XML standards for ancillary services, rival standards may be emerging from the newly formed and airline-controlled Open Axis Group.  The GDSs are in the midst of deciding how to relate to the new group.

Gilliland also took a swipe at the airlines’ current assortment of ancillary services, although he said, “Now, I’m not here to criticize airlines for adding fees.”

He noted that unbundling has enabled airlines to increase traveler choice and drive incremental revenue, “although I will say most choices offered these days seem only to allow travelers to buy themselves out of an otherwise bad customer experience.”

In other developments, Gilliland expressed disappointment about the U.S. Congress’s delay in reauthorizing the FAA Reorganization Act, which contains a provision to speed the development of Next Gen Air Traffic Control.

“When fully operational, Next Gen ATC is estimated to decrease airline fuel consumption in the U.S. by 16% through more efficient routing of aircraft,” Gilliland said. “This is an enormous savings.”

So the gloves are coming off and the simmering dispute between the airlines and the GDSs over non-traditional content distribution is breaking out into war.

At first most international airlines have been watching the different positions taken by the traditional GDSs in the North American market.

The airlines generally regard ancillary services as a critical part of their future business model for profitability.

The GDSs, as they contend with ever increasing product complexity, don’t want to have to spend a large amount of money to re-develop the core architecture to accommodate this need.

Users do not want to change, they simply want a nice and easy way to compare products which they regard as a commodity. And they want it in the traditional channels in the traditional way.

The airlines believe it is critical to differentiate their products and services, and then distribute as they see fit. Conversely, the GDSs have been slow to develop solutions to accommodate the airlines in their needs.

Last year the legacy GDSs pointed to a lack of standards as a reason not to develop or support the distribution of unbundled product. And this is the core of the issue – the right to differentiate one’s product.

The airlines appear to be reluctant to wait for a GDS based standard for ancillaries and indeed in the USA formed their own organization to create a standard.

The idea behind OpenAxis Group is that their solution was formed because the OpenTravel Alliance and the traditional GDSs were perceived to be taking too long to develop a set of solutions.

The standoff between the players continues, although now they are starting to discuss it.

Many traditional airlines outside of the USA have been quiet on the issue – but the gloves have certainly come off in Asia-Pacific.

Specifically two airlines based in the region are vocal in their frustration.

From Jetstar (a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas), executive manager for commercial, David Koczkar, was blunt in his assessment of the problem.

“The GDS’s can’t sell half our products.” And then he was more specific: “ …[they] can’t keep up with the LCCs in terms of product development.”

Further north, in what has become a very competitive market, Amin Khan, senior general manager network, revenue management and distribution for Malaysia Airlines, describing his frustration with the GDSs, said: “We are not able to display to the end customer what we would like them to see…”

He added that GDSs are “too expensive”. There is a subtext to the issue and that is how airlines feel a growing discontent with the highly restrictive GDS full content contracts, which in some cases are now tying their hands in their distribution of any content.

But the GDSs are fighting back. Responding to a reporter’s question directly, Amadeus retiring CEO David Jones responded by pushing the blame bucket back across to the airlines.

He pointed the finger at the airlines by saying they should have agreed on a universal set of standards for their own systems.

Sticking to the GDS standard line, he said: “The fact is that different airlines around the world have not yet agreed on any set standards to do this.”

This is going to be a long running saga. Now there is a standard set available in the OpenAxis Group which is not just a paper standard but has actually been deployed in markets, and not just in the USA.

The GDSs don’t have this argument to hang onto much longer.

Where Jones is right is that there are still issues on financial fulfillment to be resolved. But the airlines are not waiting – this is critical to their success, they are putting in solutions today and working with distributers to ensure that the customers can buy their products through their preferred channels which of course includes travel agents.

The impact of this fundamental change of the airline product clearly extends beyond the GDSs.

The OTAs and indeed anyone selling airline products – either standalone or bundled – will have to start working quickly to deploy these solutions.

Standards or not – avoiding the issue is not an option.

Note: The author is acting CEO of LUTE Technologies, which is an allied member of Open Axis Group.

NB: Hat-tip Travel Weekly Australia for source quotes.

The JetBlue-Sabre romance was in full bloom for all to see yesterday.

In JetBlue’s second quarter earnings call, President and CEO David Barger credited Sabre, which began hosting the airline’s reservation system early this year, for enabling the airline to introduce 11 price points based on customer demand to its Even More Legroom product. Previously there were fewer price points and they were based on route length rather than customer demand.

Barger said the enhancements to Even More Legroom should generate $10 million in incremental revenue in the second half of 2010.

And, CFO Ed Barnes announced that beginning Sept. 1 JetBlue will introduce pre-boarding to Even More Legroom customers, a move designed to render the “program even more attactive to business customers.”

JetBlue also revealed it will establish an agreement with its sixth interline partner, El Al.

JetBlue implemented an interline agreement with American Airlines this week, and earlier during the second quarter established an interline pact with South African Airways.

“The Sabre platform is allowing us to better scale our business including more seamless integration with airline partners and better connectivity to global distribution systems,” Barger said. “While we began to realize some benefits of this more robust system [SabreSonic] back in February, we continue to see even more revenue growth as we add functionality to the Sabre platform.”

Barger also said Sabre enabled the airline to tap into “higher yielding business traffic through the GDS channels and enhanced pricing capabilities.”

The Sabre platform also aided the airline in adding several classes to the airline’s fare structure, a boost to JetBlue pricing and revenue management capabilities, he said.

JetBlue says it incurred $2 million in Sabre-related one-time expenses during the second quarter.

Despite all the plaudits for Sabre, the airline has experienced some hiccups in the transition to the new reservations system.

Barnes said JetBlue had lower change-fee revenue in the second quarter because it has waived certain change fees for passengers in connection with the SabreSonic implementation.