The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) yesterday issued letters to the U.S. Departments of Justice and Transportation, asking that they look into the circumstances leading to last week’s announcement by G2 Switchworks (G2) that it has signed long-term agreements with seven major airlines that “designate G2 as a provider of choice for alternative-GDS distribution services between them and key agency clients.” G2 is the latest entrant in the travel distribution market.
In its letter to Hon. R. Hewitt Pate, the assistant attorney general, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), ASTA wrote:
“As attractive as G2’s claims to technological superiority may sound, there are complex business issues involved in the entry into the travel information aggregation business, not the least of which is how the entrant’s system will interact with established automated accounting systems that most retailers use. The government should not, therefore, assume that G2’s claims will necessarily or automatically lead to a cost-breakthrough or other market-stimulating innovations. … In the meantime there is an indication that the airlines are once again poised to involve themselves in the ownership and, possibly, control or significant influence of a firm with GDS-like characteristics.”
