We're entering a post-GDS world.
The industry's collective response to Lufthansa's recent imposition of a DCC, its fee for booking via the GDS, was built upon fundamental belief in the efficiency of the GDS for distribution and travel management.
But the foundations of this efficiency are built not only upon the workings of the small oligopoly of providers, namely Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport, but upon their ability to promise bookers - namely corporates, travellers and TMCs - content.
Full content was a battle fought between carriers and GDSs in the mid noughties when the airlines began to appreciate the power of their own websites. It seems to be emerging again.
At present with the exception of some low-cost carriers, all three GDSs offer pretty much universal air content. (On the other hand, there are real differences in content in other categories such as rail and hotels.)
This week, business with jetBlue through Travelport was suspended. If an existing booking has not been ticketed, the ticketing must now be done directly with jetBlue. Tickets obtained via a Travelport booking are valid but no changes may be made other than directly with jetBlue. The carrier's schedules remain in the GDS but no bookings may be made.
jetBlue is not a small carrier. It is used in many corporate programmes. After all, its 2014 annual report boasts 32 million passengers and 45 billion available seat miles. jetBlue still has agreements in place with Sabre and Amadeus so the only corporates who will be affected are those using Travelport agencies.
And that is the nub of the post-GDS world. As the availability of more and more corporate-friendly content is on channels other than the GDS, bookers are becoming used to a multi-channel world.
Industry and carrier polls suggest that corporate bookings with Lufthansa have fallen. That means that corporates are differentiating carriers not only by product and service but by business model.
And now differences are emerging among the GDS, now only one of several different booking options. If one of jetBlue's 32 million passengers are from your company and your travel management contract is with a Travelport agency, you will now have to deal directly with the supplier.
Fragmentation is happening not only among booking channels but within them.
This is not necessarily a bad thing but it is a different thing.
But remember that Travelport grabbed headlines this week not because of jetBlue but because it upped its stake in Locomote to a majority shareholding. Locomote specialises in digital and mobile travel solutions for business travellers, especially online booking and travel expense platforms.
In its release Travelport stresses new Locomote's CEO Sandra McLeod's extensive experience with corporate travel buyers.
Travelport's future is still with corporate travel programmes and buyers.
But it will be different.