Travel Tech formally submitted to the U.S. DOT answers in opposition to the application by IATA for approval of the inter-carrier agreement contained in Resolution 787 (Enhanced Airline Distribution).
WASHINGTON – The closed-door deliberations by a group of major airlines to significantly limit how consumers shop and compare airline fares and schedules should not be endorsed by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), a leading trade group representing travel distribution urged in its filing to the DOT.
Travel Tech: The Travel Technology Association formally submitted to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) answers in opposition to the application by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for approval of the inter-carrier agreement contained in Resolution 787 (Enhanced Airline Distribution). Since IATA failed to show that the agreement to develop the New Distribution Capability (NDC) is in the public interest as required under 49 USC Section 41309, Resolution 787 should not be approved the association told the DOT.
“The application and the accompanying IATA documents raise serious questions about the motive behind the development of Resolution 787,” said Simon Gros, Travel Tech’s chairman. “The technological advancements IATA supposedly seeks to establish are already being developed by travel distribution and technology companies operating in the free market without any governmental encouragement, rendering DOT action in this area unnecessary.”
Instead, Travel Tech argues that NDC is an outgrowth of an agreement between 240 competing IATA airlines that will obscure the true cost of flying, the impact of which would be to raise ticket prices for consumers worldwide.
“The traveling public values Travel Tech member companies because they enable effective comparison shopping across all airlines,” Gros said. “It is incumbent upon the DOT to reject any collective airline industry attempt to substitute the current market-driven distribution system with a different model in the absence of any sufficient justification for doing so.”
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
