Delta Air Lines has no immediate plans to apply a fee to GDS bookings but will continue to "evaluate" its options around distribution, according to Nathaniel Pieper, senior VP, Europe Middle East, Africa and India.
Speaking to BBT, Pieper said that while “Lufthansa has obviously crunched the numbers and decided that was their best path. I’m not going to tell you from our perspective that we’re comfortable with that.
"It’s one of those you sit on the side lines and see what happens and do what’s right for you. It’s an individual carrier play.”
Speaking about the significant investment Delta has put into all aspects of its product, Pieper said: “The more viable delta.com and different channels become, the less reliant you are on others, but it doesn’t mean you can sell everything on delta.com, we’re not that naive.
"There are strengths and weaknesses to each channel and some are better for selling tickets than others.”
Pieper admitted it was something that Delta was continuing to “evaluate”.
“Right now Lufthansa is charting the path that they think is best for them and it’s a dynamic world,” he said.
“Just because the current environment makes sense for Delta and its partners today, who knows what makes sense tomorrow? Distribution strategy is something we are focused on to keep control of our product and you see it in everything we’ve done. We got tired of being subject to refining margin in fuel so we bought a refinery, we got tired of other people distributing our product and basically making rules for us and so we have been very aggressive in renegotiating the deals we have in the States. Think back to the agency commissions we used to pay – they were off the charts, particularly in Asia. They tapered down and now they have gone to zero, but that was a process no one had seen.”
Pieper would not be drawn about Delta’ partner Air France’s position on GDS fees.
Read a booking agent's view on Lufthansa's new online direct agency portal.
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