UPDATE: The founding airlines of OpenAxis Group are believed to be Air Canada, AirTran Airways, American Airlines, Continental Airlines and United Airlines.
Other carriers said to have joined the group include Emirates Airlines, US Airways, Lufthansa and Delta. American declined to comment on the group.
[The original story follows:]
A new airlines standards body, OpenAxis Group, is tentatively slated to have a coming out party next week, with the hope of speeding the development of XML standards for airline merchandising.
It appears that the group would focus on airline merchandising, possibly outside traditional GDS channels, at least initially, as the group would license XML schema from Farelogix as a starting point for its standards' development work.
Several airline members of OpenAxis already have Farelogix XML schema in production outside of GDS channels such as Sabre, Amadeus, Galileo and Worldspan, so the organization feels that these messages would be an appropriate foundation for development.
Tnooz and The Beat previously reported that airlines were testing the waters about forming such an organization, but Tnooz learned that the organization appears to be much further along in the process and is mulling making a formal announcement about its existence next week.
The establishment of OpenAxis sets up the possibility of two vying XML standards groups in the travel industry -- and could play into distribution disruption as airlines attempt to offer optional services in channels, such as the FLX platform, that they feel are lower cost and provide more flexibility.
Jim Young, a founder of OpenTravel, the incumbent industrywide XML standards group, is acting as an agent of the OpenAxis founders, and could become its executive director. However, Young declined to comment about the new organization.
OpenAxis is not believed to have been officially established yet so some of the details uncovered about its direction could change -- as could the timing of its going public.
The group is believed to include some major U.S. airlines, as well as foreign carriers.
OpenAxis intends to develop and maintain XML standard schema for airlines, and its membership structure would also include other industry sectors, as well.
Airline participants posit that an airline group focused on developing XML standards would speed development and adoption of standards.
The group believes that OpenTravel has been too slow in developing its schema -- a charge that OpenTravel rejects -- although OpenAxis hopes to work in some fashion with OpenTravel, IATA, ATPCO and ATA.
Like OpenTravel, OpenAxis would make its standards available for free download.
OpenAxis would be a nonprofit group, supported initially by membership fees.
Founding members would pay $10,000 in annual fees and would make a three-year commitment to the organization.
Other airlines with more than $1 billion in revenue would pay $12,500 annually while carriers with less than $1 billion in annual revenue would pay membership fees of $7,500 per year.
Dues for allied members would range from $1,000 to $2,500 per year, depending on the company's size, and industry assocations would pay $500.
All of these numbers could change as airlines hash out the details in coming days or weeks.
It appears that the group could be using new standards it develops for merchandising purposes outside traditional GDS channels.
In fact, OpenAxis would license Farelogix schemas from its FLX alternative distribution platform as a foundation for development.
The FLX schemas are believed to incorporate OpenTravel schemas, although they have been modified.
Farelogix would be an allied member of the organization and would wield no other formal role.
The formation of OpenAxis could lead to dueling standards organizations in the travel industry. Founded in 1999, OpenTravel is the established standards body in the industry.
The two groups could figure out a way to work together -- but two sets of rival standards for airlines make the entire concept of a standard very problematic.