After several years of online agencies leading growth in air ticket sales, the last few months show a distinct decline for the online sector.
Farelogix is highly supportive of management and settlement standards being developed around the merchandising process. We have been the leaders in developing the first ARC certified EMD (both EMD-A and EMD-S), which is in full accordance to the IATA reporting standard. Farelogix merchandising solutions also fully support ATPCO fare filings if airlines opt to use ATP instead of alternative merchandising solutions in the market.
However,
Farelogix is concerned about the recent announcement to extend the "standards movement" to the actual airline product definition and sales process.
ARC said it and American Airlines are working to eliminate duplicate bookings. Work began in February, according to ARC, which said it "is now ready to bring additional carriers onboard in the development process in order to expand the service which is hoped will soon be of industry-wide benefit."
Developing standards and solutions to handle ancillary revenue items now in vogue at most airlines has been and will continue to be a challenging task that requires coordination between various industry constituents. The solution favored by ARC--the
electronic miscellaneous document--has its good, bad and ugly sides.
