IATA and Travel Agencies To Meet In Miami About A New Way of Doing Business
Photo Credit: Not all passengers want the same thing in their travels, and airlines want the ability to market different products and services to different passengers based on their preferences. Pictured, passengers line up to get boarding passes in Terminal C at DFW Airport on Tuesday, April 16, 2013. Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT / Max Faulkner
Skift Take
After brutal battles between airlines and travel agencies over the last few years, IATA realizes it can't push through the changes in distribution that it seeks without some buy-in from the other side. New battles may be in the offing so enjoy the peace while she reigns.
Representatives of airline trade group IATA and its usual detractors among travel tech companies and travel agencies plan to meet in Miami on Friday as a fragile and temporary truce has broken out in the dispute over the airlines' desire to usher in a new era in travel distribution.
The issue revolves around IATA's so-called New Distribution Capability, which would basically be a means for airlines to accelerate their marketing of ancillary services to passengers in a personalized manner.
Global distribution systems Sabre, Amadeus and Travelport, big travel agencies, and their respective lobbying groups are concerned that NDC would usurp their roles in retailing to travelers, put them at a competitive disadvantage, and be costly.
After what might be called the GDS-airline wars of 2011 and 2012, the two sides starte
