GTMC threatens boycott over no-frills GDS charges

The Guild of Travel Management Companies is threatening to boycott no-frills airline bookings via GDSs in a row over charges imposed by easyJet.

The organisation has hit out over the airline charging an extra 12 euros for return bookings made through the Amadeus and Travelport [Galileo/Worldspan] global distribution systems. Single sectors will be charged as 7.5 euros. 

The irony is that travel management companies and their corporate clients have long been urging the no-frills carriers to join the full-service carriers on the GDSs, allowing travel bookers to make their flight choices from a single system, the GTMC said.

Travel management companies are already concerned that the airlines, via GDSs, are trying to shift their costs to buyers, and the guild has pledged to fight any such moves.

Guild chief executive Philip Carlisle said: “Whilst we welcome this as a step in the right direction for our clients,  to charge the client far more than the tiny extra cost involved for the airline on fares that are already (by the nature of late corporate booking profiles) higher than the average no-frills price, is adding insult to injury. 

“We have meetings with both Amadeus and easyJet scheduled for this month, and members have been discussing this with Travelport, and would very much hope to reach an amicable resolution to this issue.”

And he warned: “If that is not possible, one suggestion is that we boycott the GDS as far as no-frills bookings are concerned, continuing to use screen scrapes to search for availability, and booking direct. That will mean extra work, and there will be a cost to our clients, but it won’t be anything like the 12 euros rip-off that is currently being proposed.”

Carlisle added: “The no-frills carriers resisted the GDS channel at first because they were making big inroads into the independent, unmanaged business travel sector.  That growth has now tapered off, and they are increasingly keen to break into the corporate market.

“As far as corporate travel is concerned, the no-frills airlines have a lot of limitations, but by joining GDSs they could have a useful role in the marketplace. However, they’re not going to play any role at all at 12 euros extra a round trip.

“If the carriers want to tap into this revenue stream, that’s fine by us.  However, you win customers through persuasion, professionalism and performance – not through push-button profiteering.”

An easyJet spokeswoman said: “Unlike some of our competitors, easyJet is committed to establishing a working relationship with the trade.

“However, we are not and will never be bound by the rules and precedents of high fares legacy carriers. If we incur a cost we pass it on to the passenger.

“That’s our approach to everything and is all we are doing with our approach to GDS pricing.

“We hope that the trade will see the addition of UK’s largest airline’s entire inventory into the GDS as positive step.”

by Phil Davies