One in Five Amadeus Bookings Subject to New Fees as Air France Adds Surcharge

It has taken many years, and the moves have been fraught with conflict, but major airlines are slowly adding fees for consumers and travel managers when they book flights through global distribution systems and travel agencies. That put Amadeus executives on the defensive Friday in talking to investment analysts during a third-quarter earnings call. They faced many questions about Air France-KLM announcing hours earlier that it will copy the moves of Lufthansa and International Airlines Group, parent of British Airways, and add fee on sales made through third-party distribution channels like Amadeus and its rivals Sabre and Travelport. After Air France adds its charge of an unspecified amount in April 2018, three major European airline groups will be actively engaged in trying to drive more direct bookings, and charging more for bookings made outside their channels. That new reality means that 20 percent of all the plane tickets Amadeus processes worldwide would be for flights on three airline groups that have introduced surcharges for tickets booked through its channel, and so would be cheaper if booked directly instead of through Amadeus. Contract terms are not public, but it seems all-but-certain that Amadeus will try to penalize