A bitter dispute over distribution between American Airlines and Travelport appears to have been resolved at least in the short term.
The two have been involved in a long-running legal battle centred on the airline’s desire to drive bookings via its own Direct Connect channel and cut the cost of appearing on GDSs.
Both Travelport and rival GDS Sabre have been involved in anti-trust litigation with the airline in US courts.
American Airlines and Travelport yesterday jointly announced that a full content agreement was no longer due to run out and would continue until the end of the year.
The joint statement said that the existing full-content agreements between American and Travelport’s global distribution systems, Apollo, Galileo and Worldspan, “have been extended concurrently and are no longer due to expire until late 2012”.
It added: “Terms of Travelport’s subscriber opt-in programs for American Airlines remain unchanged. No further details will be disclosed at this time.”
The latest extensions of content deals with the GDSs covers the period when litigation in the US is expected to reach court.
The Sabre, American Airlines case is due to he heard in Texas in August.