The growth of online travel sales has slowed to match that of the market as a whole, a GDS provider has claimed.
Simon Ferguson, Travelport’s managing director, UK, Ireland and Nordic countries, told the GTMC conference in Brussels that the UK travel market as a whole was growing at 5 per cent and online travel at only 6 per cent.
“In the UK, online is still growing, but not much more than the overall market – that’s a very common picture in a mature market.”
Anything with any degree of flexibility needed a GDS, he said. “Less than 20 per cent of European managed business travel goes direct to a .com and that includes rail.”
He said third party distribution had bought airlines into overseas markets, allowed interlining and secured them higher fares. The Middle East carriers were a good example.
“They are in 26 US cities. They are not going to sell that capacity just through their .coms because their brands are not strong enough in that market.”
GDSs had also helped budget airlines like Ryanair expand and gain corporate sales, he said. “Ryanair has 33 aircraft for delivery by 2018, it’s not going to sell this capacity with stag dos from Stansted.”
Ferguson said distribution charges, such as that threatened by Lufthansa, were part and parcel of commercial life. “Imagine if Ford went round to its dealers and said ‘all that investment on the forecourt, we think you should do that for nothing’”.
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