Southwest's GDS deals to help agents, but how much?: Travel Weekly - 0 views
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Southwest's pending move into the Travelport and Amadeus GDSs, coupled with the carrier's entry into ARC's settlement and reporting system, will simplify workflow for travel advisors and make it easier for TMCs and leisure agencies alike to process Southwest purchases.
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"If it becomes easier to sell Southwest, the competing airlines may take a look at it and say, 'We might be losing share,' and they may address it in a competitive way."
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"In some instances, we have found lower fares on the Big Three carriers. I don't believe we will see an increase in competition, since they are already competing in the marketplace."
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GDS systems are predominantly used by travel agencies to book both individual and corporate travel. By expanding their listings to Travelport and Amadeus, Southwest opens themselves up to increases in bookings but also potentially moving into better competition with larger airlines. Moving into these systems also allows them to offer further NDC enabled content, such as fare bundles and checked bags, helping to build even more bookings.
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Southwest has always been on the outskirts when it comes to the top airlines. The "big three" are known as American, Delta and United. In order for Southwest to stay in the game, they are providing full content in Amadeus and Travelport systems. Amadeus is known for its European market and Travelport is known for its US market. Southwest already belongs to Sabre, which is also a US market. However, "those offerings will both complement and exceed Southwest's current limited-content availability on Sabre" (Silk). Henry Hartveldt states that "given Sabre's leading presence in the U.S. market, Southwest will elevate its participation in the Sabre GDS as well" (Silk). Of course, by only belonging to one GDS presence, Southwest was not able to compete with the big three, however, now Southwest is back in the game. In order to sell your tickets, you must be available in the channels that customers prefer to use. Southwest realized that "they had to go down that path or be left behind" (Silk). Vlitas believes that "Southwest's broader entry into the GDSs will result in the legacy carriers boosting the incentives they offer corporate and leisure agencies" (Silk). Other airlines may fear more GDS entries from other airlines, however, it is clear that GDS is here to stay.