Travelport has reiterated its opposition to the American Airlines Direct-Connect system after seeing online agency client Priceline opt to partner with the airline.
Priceline announced its partnership with American Airlines to use the Direct-Connect model yesterday, arguably the most high profile agreement so far as the airline looks to change the way intermediaries obtain its fares, availability and ancillary services.
The online travel agency has long-term distribution agreements with both Travelport and Sabre, but the decision this week is likely to be at odds with the GDSs, both of which have publicly stated their hostility to Direct-Connect.
In a statement, when asked to react to Priceline's move this week, Travelport says Direct-Connect will "negatively impact the travel marketplace and the efficiency of the travel shopping, comparing, booking and subsequent booking change processes in place today".
"As an advocate for all travel constituencies including travel suppliers, agents and consumers, Travelport does not support the Direct Connect model currently being proposed by AA as it is inefficient and ultimately will not provide the transparency and ease of booking available today through the GDS model of distribution."
Such talk is in stark contrast to perhaps why Priceline has agreed to partner with American Airlines.
A Priceline official says in a one-line statement via email:
"For redundancy purposes, we have always maintained multiple links, so this is consistent with what we've done in the past."
But while Travelport says it will support a marketplace that "maximizes transparency and the ability to shop, compare, and book travel services for all travel constituencies", it has hinted that it will be less than impressed with those that disrupt the status quo.
"Travelport intends to fully honor its commitments to its travel agency customers and suppliers and in turn, we expect them to honor their commitments to Travelport."
When asked if the American Airlines-Priceline agreement was at odds with such commitments, an official declined to discuss further, stressing that the company will not comment on "specifics of commercial agreements as they are proprietary and confidential".
Watch this space, it would appear.