Amadeus unveiled a three-year, full-content program in Europe and said 34 airlines have signed up for it.
Among them are Air France-KLM, Iberia, Alitalia, TAP Air Portugal, Air Europa and Malev.
The new agreement is an extension of the one-year Amadeus Full Content Option introduced in 2005.
Similar to the DCA-3 agreements introduced by GDS companies in the U.S. in 2003, the new Amadeus deal provides airlines with lower distribution costs in exchange for the full range of their fares.
Amadeus unveiled a three-year, full-content program in Europe and said 34 airlines have signed up for it. Among them are Air France-KLM, Iberia, Alitalia, TAP Air Portugal, Air Europa and Malev.
The new agreement is an extension of the one-year Amadeus Full Content Option introduced in 2005.
Similar to the DCA-3 agreements introduced by GDS companies in the U.S. in 2003, the new Amadeus deal provides airlines with lower distribution costs in exchange for the full range of their fares.
It also guarantees that participating airlines will provide their full content to travel agents and corporations in Europe through Amadeus with no surcharges until end of 2010.
There will be no additional cost to the travel agency or its customer, Amadeus said.
Another 29 airlines have signed one-year full-content agreements.
Both deals require airlines to provide access through Amadeus to the same content provided on any Web site, including their own; in the carriers' own reservations system, and via any other distribution provider.
Amadeus said that together, the airlines that signed one- or three-year deals represent about 70% of European airline bookings made by Amadeus subscribers in Europe.
Amadeus sweetened the deal for airlines that sign full-content agreements by further reducing the booking fee for "home market" bookings.
At the beginning of 2004, Amadeus rolled out "value-based pricing" for airlines, which cut fees for bookings made within a carrier's home market and increased them for higher-value bookings, such as those for intercontinental flights or bookings made outside its prime market.
Amadeus said the new program was an effort to establish a "period of stability" in European distribution. The European Commission in November adopted revisions to the 19-year-old CRS Code of Conduct that partially deregulate the GDS industry in Europe.
Similarly, the old DCA-3 agreements in the U.S. ensured that GDS deregulation, which took effect in two stages in 2004, would not cause sudden upheaval and uncertainty in the marketplace. The agreements did not begin to expire until 2006, giving all parties plenty of time to adapt and prepare for changes.