A business travel lobby group has written to British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh warning they could snub the airline over its plan to impose increased charges and withdraw content from the Global Distribution Systems.
The Business Travel Coalition – which includes 52 business agents – wrote to Walsh expressing “profound concern” about BA’s stance over the GDSs renegotiations, which includes expecting agents to pay the airline’s distribution costs.
The current three-year deals, which see agents pay bookings fees of no more than 95p per sector, with Galileo, Amadeus, Worldspan and Sabre expire at the end of the month.
However, BA is believed to want to pass all of its distribution costs on to travel agents, which could mean a charge of £4 per booking.
The BTC warned Walsh such action could see business travel agents snub BA for its rival airlines.
“You are directly threatening the loss of your most valuable customer by imposing costs already included in price of our tickets,” the letter said.
It continues by telling BA its complex worldwide network means it gets more value from the GDS than other airlines, so agents should not be charged for booking the airline.
“The GDSs give your airline a decided advantage in securing a premium share of our business,” the letter says. “It’s therefore most surprising you would risk this advantage by reportedly threatening to remove content and shift further costs burdens to us.”