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Posted Feb 10, 2010
Posted Jan 15, 2010
I had some fun last week in a column with a faux New Year's resolution to get One Equity Partners' Greg O'Hara to participate in an interview. His company had declined that opportunity multiple times, I noted, which was too bad since he holds seats on the boards of several of The Beat's focus companies: Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Rearden Commerce, Travel Leaders Group and Travelport. Guess what? I saw Greg two days later at the Tzellebration (Travel Leaders) holiday party. After introducing me to some colleagues and noting that the column was fun for him too, Greg said that while he could not do an an interview, he could pen a guest column. So here's how you can help.

Posted Jan 13, 2010
The Interactive Travel Services Association commissioned PhoCusWright to produce a paper outlining the "role and influence" of the global distribution systems. You can get it here. For most industry participants, the paper will contain little new information. It looks more like a primer that GDS companies reportedly planning to go public can hand out to potential investors and analysts. If I can be permitted to stereotype, the GDS role is as familiar to such folks as is the dark side of the moon (not the album). ITSA executive director Art Sackler declined to answer my question on whether the paper's timing is related to IPOs, but nevertheless, I have to agree with him that such a paper "was long past due."
Posted Jan 11, 2010
Travelport does not disclose the details of our agreements with customers and partners as they are confidential, but we nevertheless feel compelled to write to set the record straight regarding Timothy O'Neil-Dunne’s blog post (20 December 2009) alluding to the negotiations and subsequent long-term, global full content agreement between Travelport and British Airways. On this subject, Mr. O'Neil-Dunne has stated several factual inaccuracies in his post and overall, has made an unfair and misleading characterization of our agreement.
Posted Jan 4, 2010
With the industry still lacking innovation and being driven by incentives, as well as travel management companies continuing to put all their eggs in the global distribution system baskets as it seems, technology providers are forecasted to face a downturn.
Posted Dec 20, 2009
The recent distribution arrangement between Travelport and British Airways should come as no shock to anyone. As widely reported several weeks ago, BA is determined to adjust its distribution mode; the UK airline has re-signed with Travelport. It is also reported to be near an agreement with Amadeus (who also hosts the British carrier). Despite being somewhat battered in the recent downturn, the British carrier is driving to a beat where it lowers its costs for distribution. So lets briefly examine what is has agreed to with Travelport and what it wants to get from the other GDS companies.
Posted Dec 16, 2009
Against a lot of odds, Travelport retained Flight Centre Limited in Australia. Or at least part of the business. The odds were definitely against Travelport. Amadeus had mounted a very strong campaign as had Sabre. Heavyweights went a courting in Brisbane. In the end, it probably came down to the cost of transition rather than anything else. I suspect that the canny people at FCL knew that there were certain concessions that they wanted from Travelport to stay on Galileo.
Posted Dec 4, 2009
Posted Dec 3, 2009
Limited access to fares and inventory from Brazilian airlines Gol and Tam has frustrated corporate travel agencies and buyers for years. Gol last week announced expanded participation with the global distribution system providers, but a Gol representative nevertheless indicated that "there is no GDS provider with Gol's full content."
Posted Nov 13, 2009
Far from its one time part owner Travelport (Galileo and Worldspan) has now concluded a deal with BA. The deal extends the current opt in/opt out arrangement for significantly less than the regular Legacy GDS segment fee. It should be noted that in the UK Home market - the moving of content out of GDSs by BA has been under way for some time with the Lime Management.
We can expect to see more content moved out of the legacy GDSs to systems such as Lime over time.
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