In its latest Ask the Question video, Farelogix points to the seeming contradiction between Travelport's praise of its direct-connect with Air Canada and vehement opposition to American Airlines Direct Connect.
As reported and as Jim Davidson, the Farelogix president, CEO and in-house bobblehead notes in Ask the Question 9, Travelport GDS hooked up to the Air Canada API, called AC2U, to access the airline's flights, as well as inventory heretofore unavailable in global distribution systems.
Davidson questions why Travelport hailed the Air Canada initiative as an "industry first" yet blasts AA Direct Connect as "materially inferior..."
Actually, Kurt Ekert, Travelport's chief commercial officer stated: AA Direct Connect is “simply an attempt by AA to push a materially inferior version of the value provided to travel agencies, suppliers and others in the travel distribution chain by the highly evolved and efficient GDS channel."
Davidson muses about what he sees as a seeming contradiction.
Davidson points out that AC2U and AA Direct Connect are both based on the same Open AXIS Group XML standards, which were developed by Farelogix. [Farelogix is American Airlines' direct-connect subcontractor.]
What Davidson doesn't mention is that Travelport has stated that the direct-connect controversy is not about technology.
“It is about AA wanting to gain additional control over distribution for its sole benefit and against the interests of consumer travelers and other key industry stakeholders,” Ekert has said.
In other words, American Airlines wants to usurp part of the role traditionally plays by the GDSs while Air Canada doesn't appear to be taking that tack.
And, the issue is very much about economics.
Air Canada seems to be placing most of its focus on the additional revenue it can attract through direct-connect and GDS distribution, while American Airlines seemingly is putting more weight on direct-connect and reductions in GDS fees.
Here's the Farelogix video:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43uHtBBu7BY