This is the third in our continuing series about airline GDS systems – where they’ve been and where they’re going. We started by looking at the need for an automated way to handle unbundled pricing (click here). Next, we covered a possible solution, the electronic miscellaneous document, which unfortunately, won’t be fully implemented until 2013 (click here). Here we look at some GDS history and at why the future may look nothing like the past.
Airlines have been battling the GDS companies for decades over a litany of complaints, but GDS systems which linked airlines with travel agencies continued to function. That could change if the airlines decide to take matters into their own hands.
In the mid-1990s, they balked at paying segment fees for agents’ passive bookings that produced no revenue. Later, they rebelled against attempts to charge fees for the transition to electronic ticketing.
Read the full story at http://www.travelmarketreport.com/technology?articleID=3140&LP=1
