The head of the Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC) has demanded “transparency” and “honesty” from British Airways over its announcement of a GDS booking fee.
GTMC chief executive Paul Wait dismissed the alternative New Distribution Capability (NDC) booking channels proposed by BA as “not fit for purpose” and told the airline: “You need the GDS.”
He warned: “The TMC community and its customers will not be quiet or submissive.”
BA and IAG-owned sister carrier Iberia announced the imposition of an £8 GDS booking fee from November 1 last month.
The airlines’ fares will only be available without the fee when booked direct or via an NDC direct connection to the airline’s system or via a booking portal which is not yet available. NDC is a certification standard developed by airline association Iata.
Wait told the GTMC conference in Monaco: “We don’t believe or accept that our channel is the most expensive, not if you [BA] truly understand our value, not if you take into consideration the true cost of direct selling, the technology development costs, the advertising, the look-to-book rates.”
He told BA: “Don’t disrespect the value of the B2B channel that delivers you the greatest overall value and average ticket price.
“Explain those calculations, explain the level of surcharge when the cost of a sector via a GDS averages £2 and the cost of attraction via Google is more like £16.”
Wait argued: “Iata’s NDC is intended to help airlines become retailers. Let us not forget that the previous director general at Iata announced this as an enabler for airlines to bypass current distribution and intermediaries.
“The new director general, when he was at Air France-KLM, basically said the same thing.”
He told the conference: “Nobody is resisting change. We want to be part of the drive for change, but not when the alternatives are not fit for purpose – not for the TMC community and not for its customers.
“We need an enhanced and extended version of what we have now, not an alternative that on the whole delivers less and creates the expense of fragmentation.
“Let’s have some clarity, let’s have some transparency, let’s have some honesty. Otherwise this is going to get messy.”
Wait was addressing his last conference as head of the GTMC, as he is leaving to join Southall Travel. The GTMC was due to announce his successor as chief executive at the close of the conference.