Hours after
American Airlines acknowledged it backed off plans to levy booking fees on Travelport subscribers outside the Americas, the global distribution provider said it would remove surcharges assessed on AA tickets.
"We welcome AA's decision to remove its surcharges on bookings made through the Travelport GDS in markets outside of the U.S. and Caribbean," according to a statement attributed to chief commercial officer Kurt Ekert. "As a result of AA's decision, Travelport will remove the AA surcharge fee with effect from midnight GMT on 17 February 2011." [more]
Citing increases in Travelport's prices charged to AA for distribution in many international markets that would have totaled $20 million annually according to the airline, AA
in November told agencies it planned to assess the surcharge, which varied by country and channel. The carrier initially planned to issue debit memos beginning this month for bookings made after Dec. 20, 2010. The original Travelport price increase was a response to AA's dispute with Orbitz.