The bitter and potentially highly damaging dispute between Travelport and US carrier American Airlines could end this year.
While the court case is still being heard in Chicago, a source told ABTN that he hoped the row could be settled in the next couple of weeks.
But he added there were as yet no sign of any further peace talks between the warring sides.
The complex row is over tit for tat moves by online agency Orbitz which is 48% owned by the US IT travel company and the aviation giant.
Orbitz accused the airline of trying to force its customers to use AA’s direct booking site rather than go via GDSs.
AA has rejected this and in turn accused Travelport, which also owns two major GDSs Galileo and Worldspan, of planning to increase the amount it charged the airline to put its fares on its GDSs from December 20.
In response, American has said it would impose a surcharge on all bookings made by non-US and non-Caribbean agents through either Worldspan or Galileo.
This effectively spread the dispute to Europe where organisations representing buyers and TMCs have warned the surcharge would increase costs.
The dispute went to the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois after AA threatened to pull all its content from Orbitz on December 1.
The judge granted Travelport a temporary injunction against AA and the full case is now being heard.
The row is the latest is a long line of disputes between US carriers and GDSs over content and charges which have regularly led to threats to withdraw content or deny access.
Airlines have long claimed that while GDSs offer a good service, it is too pricey.
They have continually pushed for passengers to book directly on their websites.
There is also a danger that if the dispute is not settled quickly, BA could be dragged into it.
The UK carrier is both a member of the same oneworld alliance as AA and a commercial partner with it and Iberia on transatlantic routes.
A senior BA executive has indicated to ABTN that the airline would stand with its American partner.
www.travelport.com www.aa.com www.ba.com