British Airways is under the microscope over its distribution strategy as GDS negotiations start to appear on the horizon and sister carrier American Airlines continues to push the direct-connect model.
When asked in early-January this year about the controversial American Airlines strategy to install so-called direct-connect technology with agency customers (bypassing the GDSs), British Airways said officially that it has a "good working relationship" with the GDSs and the model is "working as we would expect".
Willie Walsh, BA CEO at the time before moving upstairs to front the new International Airlines Group (uniting BA and Iberia), dropped a hint that the AA direct-connect idea was more than on the radar when he acknowledged IATA supremo Giovanni Bisignani's comments over the profitability of the GDSs.
Walsh told The Transnational at the time:
"We will continue to distribute our products through the global distribution systems, but I am conscious that many airlines around the world look at the value chain and see profitability in other areas when they are suffering losses. One area highlighted recently by [IATA director general] Giovanni Bisignani was the profitability of the global distribution systems, but at BA, we have no issues with our GDS partners at the moment."
Four months on (with a few more lawsuits flying around in the US) and the atmosphere has darkened ever so slightly at BA.
The official line remains as many would expect - business-like and not particularly inflammatory:
"We're working with AA and Iberia to optimise distribution, and given it's a single economic entity this includes joint corporate and agency deals to bring increased choice and flexibility to our customers.
"But on the GDS side we have separate contracts with differing expiry dates. and BA’s full content deals run to March 2013. But we watch with interest to see what is developing in the industry."
It would be sensible to presume the next 18 months will see a jockeying for position by BA and its GDS partners, Amadeus, Travelport and Sabre - indeed, it happens ahead of every round of GDS negotiations by major airlines.
The difference this time is the situation in the US with American Airlines - with BA previously trying to sit quietly on the sidelines but because of its relationship with the carrier, unable to do so.
Meanwhile, executives are rarely wrong-footed publicly with remarks over business-critical issues, so there is perhaps plenty to read into comments by one of BA's senior figures at an event in Abu Dhabi last weekend.
Head of UK and Ireland sales Richard Tams told delegates at the annual conference of the Guild of Travel Management Companies that the GDS model is "broken" and labelled the companies running the systems as "gatekeepers".
Tams also said the GDSs are "incredibly capable platforms", but that the airline had two issues: the economics of the model and the ability of GDSs to change.
He is reported to have told delegates:
"GDSs make margins of up to 30%... They have priced themselves as distribution gatekeepers, using other people’s money to fund unsustainable market share battles. Many in the industry would privately admit the model is broken, but they are struggling to make the transition."
When asked if BA's position has changed with regards to its use of the GDS model for distribution, an official says "no change". When asked to comment on the remarks by Tams to the GTMC, an official says: "He [Tams] made those comments and stands by them."
There is, for the time being, a stay of execution over whether BA will follow its US cousin into the world of direct-connect, mostly because it is bound up in contracts ending, at the very latest, in March 2013.
But would BA seek to kickstart such discussions earlier, hinting at a new position and ramping up the rhetoric in the public domain?
It would certainly be a cheaper process than thrashing it out in the courts...
NB: Full report on the session from Travel Weekly.