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.
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."
The aggressive guys at WestJet went from announcement to implementation in about 9 months.
Wow!
That must be a record for an airline of that size to make such a migration in such a period of time.
At the FVW Kongress in Cologne last month, Amadeus offered a hint in a speech that they would be reconsidering the issue of the
4.90 euros fee that Lufthansa has been leveraging for segments booked on Amadeus for the PFP program.
The Millennium Foundation officially launched its
global initiative to finance healthcare for the world’s poor by presenting their initiative to the United Nations on Sept. 23.
Click for European coverage of both
Amadeus and
Travelport lining up bankers for pubic share offerings. Gotta figure private equity has wanted out for a long while.
Though it has already been years in the making,
a ubiquitous, common IT platform for the Star Alliance is one step closer to reality now that system provider Amadeus announced a 10-year pact with SAS Group. Though not the largest, SAS is a cog in Star. Skepticism regarding Amadeus' ability to actually bring Star founder United Airlines into the common IT fold was somewhat lessened when vice president of strategic airline and partner programs
Hans Jorgensen in March told
The Beat that United's planned migration to the system still is on track.
Expedia last week said its European president and a member of the board of directors resigned and was replaced by José Antonio Tazón, who is non-executive chairman of the board at Amadeus IT Group. He was appointed Amadeus chairman in January after a November announcement said he would pass the president and CEO post to David Jones.
According to an Expedia filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the departing Expedia executive, Simon Breakwell, revealed his "intention to resign" as an Expedia board member on March 17 "effective upon the election of his successor." Expedia elected Tazón two days later. "Breakwell confirmed that his resignation was not due to a disagreement with the company on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies or practices," according to the filing.
