The US travel advisors’ association Asta has called for an anti-trust investigation into American Airlines’ withdrawal of more than 40% of its fares from traditional GDSs as it switches to new distribution capability (NDC) technology.
Asta, the US equivalent of Abta, has appealed to the antitrust and consumer protection divisions of the US Department of Justice (DoJ), arguing American Airlines is “denying access to fare inventory” in pursuit of an “anticompetitive business position”.
It accused American of “a clear abuse of market power” after the carrier stuck to its plan to withhold fares from GDSs from April 3, leaving full content available only via NDC channels. Asta insists these are not ready.
More: American Airlines’ NDC drive ‘will cause disruption’
The association, which called on US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg to intervene, acknowledged NDC “holds much promise” but told the DoJ the “forced adoption of NDC raises serious anti-competitive concerns”.
Asta warned travellers face “substantially higher air ticket prices” and urged the DoJ to take “appropriate action”.
It argued: “Comparison shopping for airfares will be highly compromised; consumers won’t be able to exchange a ticket issued via legacy channels for one issued through NDC channels and vice versa”; and consumers won’t be able to use flight credits “for cancelled, unused or partially used tickets for new tickets through NDC connections”.
Asta suggested the inability to interchange tickets alone “is likely to cost travellers millions of dollars” a year. It urged members to submit details of the price disparities between NDC and non-NDC channels.
American Airlines, US partner of British Airways, responded by saying: “We’re disappointed by Asta’s ongoing campaign to misrepresent American’s commitment to delivering a modern retailing experience. NDC is not unproven technology.
“We are the only carrier that has connected our NDC content to all three GDSs. While some travel agencies have not yet connected, we’ve not withheld any information that would prevent comparison shopping. All of our fares remain viewable over both NDC and traditional travel agency channels.”
However, the carrier made clear in a letter to industry partners that “travel retailers will need an NDC connection to book and ticket [American’s] best-available third-party channel content”.
It conceded “there may be some growing pains through the transition” but claimed: “The small number of servicing functionalities that won’t be available either don’t affect a significant number of transactions or will become available shortly.”
NDC technology aims to enable personalised retailing of flights via third-party distributors.
The UK Institute of Travel Management (ITM) noted NDC’s introduction is “causing a major issue” and called for “transparency around airlines’ motivation”. Chief executive Scott Davies said members had warned of “a deluge of complaints from travellers about fares being visible but not bookable”.