The European Parliament's transport committee has adopted a report on the proposed legislation on computerised reservation systems(1), which enables airlines to have insight in sensitive commercial data on air transport distribution and which fails to address airlines’ increasing discrimination against other distribution channels.ECTAA and GEBTA have concerns about the adopted amendment allowing the sale of marketing data collected in the course of CRS business including the identity of the travel agent. The sale of this data to airlines can affect competition in air transport.
In addition, keeping in mind that CRSs are the most effective tool to compare fares in a neutral manner, ECTAA and GEBTA regret that MEPs did not address the increasing trend of airlines to restrict or make more costly access to fares through CRSs. Instead, airlines will be free to restrict the sale of their most advantageous fares on their own websites, where comparison is more difficult for consumers. Without legislation, finding the optimal flight from numerous booking channels will require more time and investments in expensive technological tools for travel agents.
ECTAA and GEBTA welcome the amendments ensuring that airlines participating in the capital of a CRS cannot discriminate against other CRSs. However, they believe that a more general approach against discrimination on access to fares is the only way of ensuring a neutral distribution for the benefit of the customer.
(1) Computerised Reservation Systems are systems centralising air fares of subscribing carriers, which permits subscribing travel agents to provide instantaneous information on fares and availability to customers, as well as additional services. Theodore Koumelis - Monday, June 09, 2008