Chennai: Passengers who want to book tickets on through agents may find it difficult as the airline has discontinued its contract with a global distribution system company (), Amadeus, which majority of use. This will affect the agents and the airlines as tickets for Christmas and New Year season, and for Pongal holidays are still being booked by travellers.
In a communication to travel agents, the airline said, “Air India flight content — domestic, international and codeshare flights — will no longer be available to Amadeus GDS subscribers in all markets including in India.” It said several rounds of negotiations were held to renew the contract which ended on December 3, but “no consensus was reached”.
The impasse will hit passengers said Basheer Ahmed of Metro Travels. “Passengers will face trouble booking tickets through agents as we will not be able to access Air India’s system to block seats, tickets and make reservations at best rates. We will now be forced to move the bookings to other airlines.”
Air India’s database is accessible through three other GDS but around 75% of the agents use Amadeus, he said. “There are a few agents who use only single GDS. They are now forced to subscribe to another GDS in a short period. The move by the airline looks like a cost-cutting measure and has come at a wrong time,” he said.
22/12/18 Edward Rupert/Digital Globalist
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In a communication to travel agents, the airline said, “Air India flight content — domestic, international and codeshare flights — will no longer be available to Amadeus GDS subscribers in all markets including in India.” It said several rounds of negotiations were held to renew the contract which ended on December 3, but “no consensus was reached”.
The impasse will hit passengers said Basheer Ahmed of Metro Travels. “Passengers will face trouble booking tickets through agents as we will not be able to access Air India’s system to block seats, tickets and make reservations at best rates. We will now be forced to move the bookings to other airlines.”
Air India’s database is accessible through three other GDS but around 75% of the agents use Amadeus, he said. “There are a few agents who use only single GDS. They are now forced to subscribe to another GDS in a short period. The move by the airline looks like a cost-cutting measure and has come at a wrong time,” he said.
22/12/18 Edward Rupert/Digital Globalist
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