After intervening in American Airlines' antitrust claim against Orbitz Worldwide and Travelport, Sabre filed a motion to dismiss the suit.
Filed July 13 in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, Sabre's motion argues that American Airlines is using "federal courts to gain negotiating leverage over Sabre."
The two parties are negotiating a new GDS participation agreement, with the current pact slated to expire Aug. 31.
Sabre alleges that American Airlines is now attacking as anticompetitive some of the same non-discrimination and full-content clauses that the airline created "and defended as pro-competitive" before divesting Sabre a little more than a decade ago.
The motion is highly legalistic, as one would expect, and much of it is redacted.
Sabre says the suit should be dismissed because AA doesn't prove its claims that Sabre is anticompetitive. Sabre argues:
Sabre's requirement that AA and other airlines provide Sabre with all of its available fares and schedules -- i.e., 'full content' -- on a non-discriminatory basis is plainly pro-competitive. It promotes transparent pricing, comparison shopping, competition among airlines, and is integral to the product that Sabre offers travel agencies.
It is also not exclusive. Nothing prohibits AA or any other airline from providing Sabre's competitors with its full content, as well.
Sabre notes that American Airlines alleges that Sabre's contracts with travel agencies are anticompetitive, as well.
"None of these supply the basis for a monopolization claim, either alone or in combination," Sabre alleges.
Meanwhile, Sabre filed a motion on June 30 in a federal court in New York City to dismiss US Airways' antitrust suit against Sabre.
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