Agencies Back Amadeus Sabre Deal

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. October 14, 2008

MARCH 10, 2006. The Business Travel Coalition and the American Society of Travel Agents strongly support the just-announced agreement between the Amadeus and Sabre global distribution systems to provide customer-responsive, backup content access to one another should a major airline totally withdraw from one GDS.

BTC and ASTA encourage other GDSs to consider protecting their customers' interests in a comparable manner. This forward-thinking agreement gives travel agents, on behalf of their customers, the ability to complete bookings on an airline that might not participate in one of the GDSs but continues to participate in the other. Each GDS would promptly assume a backup role when requested to do so by the other system. The intent of this agreement is to ensure that agents and the travelers they serve have continued broad and uninterrupted access to airline inventory to help avoid service disruptions.

Rich Products Corporation Travel Administrator and BTC Member Jean Covelli stated, "A corporation losing the complete inventory of a major airline would face a significant and costly short-term business continuity crisis. In such a scenario, a corporation would be forced into a highly inefficient process requiring employees shop for and purchase air travel services through a variety of alternative distribution channels to their travel agency-of-record. A corporation could potentially need to switch to a new travel agency -- a costly and disruptive process. Overall administrative, process and purchasing costs would likely increase dramatically."

ASTA president and CEO Kathryn W. Sudeikis, CTC observed, "Travel agencies must be able to fully service their corporate and leisure customers and would incur additional costs and business uncertainty issues if, for example, American Airlines were to withdraw all content. We appreciate that American wants to lower its costs, but American is not the only party whose interests are involved here. The reality is that consumer costs would rise and confusion would increase if a major airline were to withdraw from a GDS. There are no known alternatives that provide equivalent services. We wholeheartedly support the efforts of Sabre and Amadeus to create a deterrent to any airline effort to bludgeon other commercial interests into submitting to their position." According to ASTA and the Coalition, the GDS content backup agreement represents an effective solution to a potential nightmare scenario that could adversely impact corporations fielding thousands of business travelers as well as leisure travelers trying to make vacation plans. The potential for a wholesale withdrawal of a major airline from one of these GDSs is a problem that has worried the corporate travel manager and travel agency communities for some time.

"The Amadeus-Sabre agreement is responsible policy as it protects the integrity of the distribution system and the interests of the end-customer. This policy is fully consistent with other time-tested formal and informal customer protection and enhancement compacts in the travel industry ranging from accommodating passengers of canceled flights or of bankrupt airlines to code sharing among carriers," said BTC chairman Kevin Mitchell.

With airlines entering into global alliances with the express purpose of coordinating marketing strategies and asserting joint market power against other interests, it is entirely fitting that the GDSs should seek this form of mutual assistance on behalf of their customers.

ASTA and BTC encourage other GDSs and distribution system participants to likewise seek ways to take uncertainty and attendant-associated costs out of the process for travel agencies and corporate buyers of commercial air transportation services. We commend these GDS companies for launching a new program that puts the interests of consumers first.