Amadeus and British Airways have finally signed a distribution agreement, two months after other GDS companies agreed their deals with the airline.
New distribution deals were due to come into force on April 10 but Amadeus’ was delayed for undisclosed reasons.
“We don’t really want to go into the details of the negotiations,” said an Amadeus spokesman.
“What’s important is that we’ve reached an agreement for another three years. The deal will be backdated to April 10 and agents won’t incur any extra costs. Because of the way the billing period works, most agents won’t have received a bill anyway.”
UK and Ireland travel agents will be able to access BA’s full range of fares in return for an opt-in fee paid to Amadeus of 50p per segment booked on BA premium class fares and £1 per segment booked on economy class fares.
Amadeus has outlined the deal in a letter issued to its UK and Ireland travel agency partners today.
David Jones, executive vice president commercial for Amadeus, said: “We recognise the crucial importance to our travel agency partners of delivering the most relevant travel content over a technologically advanced distribution platform.
“We are very pleased with this agreement which we believe takes into account the commercial priorities of both parties.”
By Bev Fearis
