travel distribution

July 19, 2011

The always-connected traveller: How mobile will transform the future of air travel

Tweet   Earlier this year, Amadeus commissioned Travel Tech Consulting to conduct research on airlines mobile trends. The whitepaper “The Always-Connected Traveller: How Mobile Will Transform the Future of Air Travel” combines research from JD Power with interviews of nine airlines from around the world. Augmented with Travel Tech’s ongoing monitoring of mobile airline trends, the report provides a clear picture of the […]
April 22, 2011

Airlines and GDS Battle in Court

Tweet The news this week that USAir has filled a suit against Sabre based on violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act comes on the heals of a similar lawsuit filled by AA against Travelport last week. These lawsuits may foretell serious disruption to the traditional travel distribution ecosystem. Most observers would agree that the GDS have been an oligopoly for some time and certainly a monopoly […]
April 8, 2011

DOJ Approves Google ITA – What does it mean?

Tweet   Today’s announcement about the conditional approval by the U.S. Department of Justice of the acquisition by Google of ITA Software  is sending some shock waves through the travel industry. But at the end of the day what does this really mean? Here are some of  my initial  thoughts: General search becomes meta-search – There are very valid reasons why sites […]
February 8, 2011

Travel Distribution 2011 – an Update

Tweet Since my December post, a number of developments have occurred on the evolving travel distribution front: Sabre and AA have called a temporary truce and are in negotiations to resolve their conflict Priceline has embraced the AA direct connect strategy clearly following an independent path from Expedia and Orbitz USAir has signed a multi-year agreement with Expedia which includes […]
December 7, 2010

A GDS App Store?

Tweet There is no question that 3rd party software developers have had a major impact on the technology market. Whether you look at the role of Zynga providing top Facebook apps such as Farmville or the thousands of 3rd party apps in the mobile app stores, no one can deny the impact of third party development on innovation, but what […]
November 10, 2010

Open Axis Group – “Who’s Asking?” – But Do Airlines Really Know?

Tweet The Open Axis Group, the not-for-profit industry organization promoting XML- based airline distribution connectivity has produced a video and whitepaper in an effort to persuade the indirect channel (TMCs, Corporate Booking Tools & GDS) to adopt their XML schema to access airline content including ancillary services. A key thrust of this effort is to allow airlines to provide more […]