How Struggling Air India Is Setting the Stage for a Major Battle Among Distribution Gia... - 0 views
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The battle for India’s lucrative travel market among global distribution systems is not over yet — even if Travelport has won hands down with exclusive rights to distribute Air India’s domestic flights content in India.
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For a split second, it appears that Travelport can sit pretty and command control of a vast market all on its own. Sabre announced at the start of the year that Air India had decided to withdraw from it. Amadeus had pulled out in December 2018 after Travelport’s win, awarded in October 2018 and fully implemented by January 1, 2020, which was just too much for it to swallow. So the grass was looking green for Travelport with neither Sabre nor Amadeus on the turf
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But Amadeus announced last week that it’s back in with Air India, even if it’s only with the Airline’s international flights content, not domestic, which is now fully ensconced in Travelport. And while Sabre has failed to renew its contract, which expired at the end of 2019, the company said it is still engaging with Air India on a new agreement.
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India is far too important for technology and distribution players to walk away. And the distribution weapon that Air India wields is symptomatic of a sick Airline that oscillates between cost-cutting and generating revenue as it gasps for Air to stay afloat, according to industry veterans interviewed by Skift.
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Gradually from November 2018, travel agents in India could no longer book Air India’s domestic flights, for example, Delhi to Mumbai, on Amadeus or Sabre, only on Travelport. As the deal covers only domestic, they could still book Air India’s international flights, say, Delhi to London, on any of the three competing distribution systems, while agents outside India could also continue to book Air India’s domestic and international content on all three (until December 4, 2018, when Amadeus left, that is). But as mentioned earlier, domestic is where most of the traffic is.
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There are also concerns the move will disrupt the business. “Travel agents tend to have one preferred GDS. Imagine that an agency has trained all the staff to use one particular GDS (global distribution system), then, for this one airline you have to train staff again. So maybe you’d just book a different airline,” said a source.
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Air India is a struggling Airline that is starting a battle among GDS company. since the travel market is so lucrative in India all of them are fighting to get a piece of the pie. since Air India is struggling they are taking all comers. Travelport holds the reigns when it comes domestic flights and Amadeus Holds the reigns on the international flights. This fight for control of Air India has put travel agents in India in a bind. In November of 2018 travel agents could no longer book Air India's domestic flight on Amadeus or Sabre but only Travelport. But domestic flights is where most of the traffic is. this puts the travel agents in a bingd because they train with just one GDS. Sabre is trying to get Air India's bussiness again by offering cost savings over the other two GDS giants.