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Travel agents up in arms over Air India's single global distribution system move

PARADIGM SHIFT: All set to defy the national carrier's directive to shift ticket details on Amadeus platform to Travelport by December 4, say airline may lose market share

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In their confrontation with Air India (AI) on the single global distribution system (GDS) issue, travel agents are standing their ground and may not comply with the national carriers' directive of shifting details of tickets booked on Amadeus platform to Travelport.

The state-owned airline has taken a decision to move its entire ticketing inventory to a single GDS in order to cut cost. For this, it will not share its contents with Amadeus from December 4, and by January it will phase out Sabre and Abacus.

The airline has instructed its travel partners to transfer details of tickets booked on Amadeus to Travelport, managed and controlled by ITQ.

This has been conveyed to "all industry partners" of the AI through a note issued by it on November 22, instructing; "effective 4th December 201, Air India's flights, domestic, international and code share will not be available on the Amadeus GDS platform in all markets worldwide. The following options are available for travel agents for handling of PNRs booked on Amadeus for travel after 3rd December".

Praveen Chugh, president, Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), told DNA Money travel agents will not be able to move the details of AI's tickets from "One GDS to another".

"I don't know whether this will happen or not. Travel agents are not happy doing that. They don't want to get into the moving of their (AI's) PNRs from one GDS to another. Most of the agents are using only Amadeus or Abacus, they are not using Travelport at all. Transition from one GDS to another is not an easy job. At the moment, we are looking at how can travel agents find a solution, but there has been no clarity or answer to that. We are totally in the dark," he said.

Chugh said travel agents will not change their training programme and system in the organisation just to promote one airline when they can offer many other options to their passengers.

He believes the national carrier, which is grappling with financial and operational crisis, will lose market share to other carriers if it pursued its plan of putting its entire inventory on a single GDS.

"What we presume is Air India's market share will definitely go down because just to promote one airline, amongst so many airlines worldwide, travel agents will not shift their training programme and system in the organisation. It is not an easy task. There are many (airline) options available to passengers," said the head of the travel agents' lobby body.

The TAFI chief said AI was "quite adamant" and might relent only when they feel the pinch of market loss.

"It looks like they (AI) are quite adamant. Until they feel the pinch of loss of market share, they are not going to budge from their decision. According to me they are digging their own grave. That's a very sad situation," he said.

According to him, the travel agents will take up the issue with ministry and other authorities after November 30.

Jitender Bhargava, aviation author and former airline official, told DNA Money that there have many instances in the past when the airline had lost excessive revenue in its bid to save small costs. Such disastrous outcomes had forced AI to reverse its decision.

"As a chronicler of Air India history, I can aver that there have been many instances where in trying to cut costs, we have ended up paying dearly due to the impact on revenues. There have been many instances when you (AI) took a decision to cut down losses. It eventually led to the airline losing far more revenue than the savings received," he said.

Bhargava, however, believed AI would have done a proper due diligence before taking the decision; "I trust that Air India management has considered all aspects before taking the decision to discontinue services of other GDS and relying only on one. It is my earnest hope that this decision does not lead to more loss of revenues than cost saving".

He said, "Saving costs is paramount, but revenue generation was also important".

Hinting at GDS practice followed by carriers around the world, he said Air India should not try to "reinvent the wheel".

"There is a standard industry practice. Why should anyone, even Air India, try to reinvent the wheel. Look at the practices followed by successful airlines and follow. The practice is to have multiple GDS so that you can cover all the travel agents. Some agents are patronising a particular GDS because they get a better deal from them, but as an airline your responsibility is to ensure that inventory is available to the largest number of travel agents who can help you sell your inventory," said Bhargava, who has authored a book on Air India.

Further, he said at a time when the airline was struggling to survive, he expected the airline "to not take any decision that will impact its revenues. Long-term interests have to be kept in mind while taking such decisions".

A senior official of a leading online travel agency (OTA), who spoke anonymously, also feels AI's GDS move could backfire.

"They (AI) could get impacted on the long tail of agents because smaller agents are those who may not make the shift from one GDS to other just because Air India's inventory is not available," he said.

FLYING SOLO

  • The state-owned airline has taken a decision to move its entire ticketing inventory to a single GDS in order to cut cost
     
  • For this, it will not share its contents with Amadeus from December 4, and by January it will phase out Sabre and Abacus
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