June 11, 2015

The Impact of the Lufthansa GDS Fee, Will Metasearch be Coming to Airline.com sites?

Tweet Lately, I have found it difficult to find time to blog as Travel Tech Consulting juggles multiple projects across the travel industry, but I felt compelled to comment on last week’s news that Lufthansa would be charging 16 Euros for bookings through the GDS.  I have read lots of commentary on this action ranging from support from fellow carriers and hoteliers […]
April 30, 2012

The Impact of Mobile OS on Travel Distribution

Tweet Update: July 10th 2012 – Apple awarded iTravel Patent! The approaching wave of mobile OS travel buttons (Apple iTravel, Google Travel, Bing!Travel Mobile) need to be viewed within a historical context of travel distribution. At the heart of these efforts is a new customer interface for travel. During the pre-Web days, traditional travel agents controlled distribution through their mastery of GDS […]
September 13, 2011

Google Flights

Tweet   The much anticipated  integration between ITA Software and Google arrived today with the launch of Google Flight search. The most visible enhancement in this new interface is the instant loading of fares and schedules when you enter the city pairs. The ability to launch flights from the standard Google box which leads you to the flight page ties […]
April 22, 2011

Airlines and GDS Battle in Court

Tweet The news this week that USAir has filled a suit against Sabre based on violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act comes on the heals of a similar lawsuit filled by AA against Travelport last week. These lawsuits may foretell serious disruption to the traditional travel distribution ecosystem. Most observers would agree that the GDS have been an oligopoly for some time and certainly a monopoly […]
December 22, 2010

Orbitz – AA Ruling – Is 2011 the year we will see Permanent Changes in Air Distirbution?

Tweet News this week that AA successfully defeated the Orbitz  motion for a temporary injunction allowing AA to remove its content from Orbitz has uncovered some interesting news that may foretell major changes in air distribution for 2011 and beyond. As reported in the Beat, sources are indicating that Priceline may be the first of the four major OTAs to […]
December 7, 2010

A GDS App Store?

Tweet There is no question that 3rd party software developers have had a major impact on the technology market. Whether you look at the role of Zynga providing top Facebook apps such as Farmville or the thousands of 3rd party apps in the mobile app stores, no one can deny the impact of third party development on innovation, but what […]