BA signs content deal with Galileo – fees double on discounted economy flights
British Airways has finally signed a three-year distribution agreement with Galileo for UK agents.
The agreement follows months of tight negotiations between BA and the GDSs over the content made available to agents and the fees charged.
Under the deal, which will begin on April 10, instead of charging 50p per sector for all flights, the fee for full economy bookings and above will stay the same, while the fee for discounted economy flights will double to £1 per sector.
“The good news is that it protects full content, and this is what we all wanted, but any extra cost is not good,” said Norman Gage, Advantage director for business travel.
“To use the words of Tony Hughes (Radius MD), they’ll be charging for the rubber they leave on the runway next!”
Gage said agents were now waiting to see how BA’s negotiations develop with the other GDSs.
“It won’t be a million miles away from the Galileo deal,” he added.
Guild of Travel Management Companies chairman Paul Allen said: “On the face of it, it’s possibly workable but we don’t know yet if it will affect individual members’ incentive deals.
“We must have full content. It’s vital, and that is what this scheme does. However, with £1 being charged for discounted tickets, if you add that up across thousand of bookings, it’s a lot of extra cost to bear. It could either be soaked up by the TMC or be passed back to the client.
“It’s not as bad as we would have anticipated, but any increase is not good for us or the customer.
“Also, we have members who are running on Sabre and Amadeus and we don’t know how those negotiations will turn out. We understand that the deal is soon to be struck with Sabre but Amadeus is futher behind.”
Tiffany Hall, BA head of marketing and distribution, said: “We have been working with the GDSs for some time as our previous contracts expired at the end of February. We are very pleased to have reached an agreement with Galileo, which will reduce the airline’s distribution costs and ensures that our lowest fares can continue to be distributed to all Galileo travel agents
“Our discussions with Sabre Travel Network, Worldspan and Amadeus are continuing.”
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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