Articles tagged “gds”

The travel technology giant has bowed to investor and airline demands for a management team more focused on software solutions that help with the retailing, distribution, and fulfillment of travel as an end-to-end journey, not just siloed by function.

The global distribution systems are each pushing forward in their own unique way. By investing like technology companies in flexible distribution and payment technologies, they hope to provide a better value proposition to travel partners that are keen to cut out the middleman. Decades of bad blood between the two, however, still linger over the conversation.

IATA’s New Distribution Capability appears to finally be gaining traction in corporate travel. Airlines want it to succeed as much as travel management companies, which will have access to a greater amount of content like seat upgrades and other ancillary products.

Agents may be placing more hotel bookings through global distribution systems, but the fact remains that hotels would like to move away from expensive distribution channels like these.

By cutting the management ranks, Sabre's new CEO Sean Menke addresses a gripe of "management bloat" among workers writing on review sites like Glassdoor. He also wisely cuts costs to fund new investment.

There ain't no such thing as a free booking.

In his first interview with Skift, Amadeus's chief executive Luis Maroto makes a persuasive case that his $24.8 billion company is successfully navigating industry changes.

Ukraine's flag carrier is the first airline to follow Lufthansa's bold September 2015 move to add a surcharge to bookings made via third-parties. Yet the industry may be overstating the threat to the revenue of the middlemen.

Skyscanner is becoming an online shop-window for airlines, providing a branded experience that's similar to the airline's own sites. Behind this move is a technological upheaval that's scrambling commercial alliances.

Amadeus says it is pulling off its promised trick of staying profitable despite margin pressure on its mainstay airline services business. This year much depends on how well its reservation system projects with Southwest Airlines and IHG go.