American Airlines and Travelport have settled their two-year legal dispute and signed a distribution deal.
Travelport, which owns Galileo and Worldspan as well as a stake in Orbitz, had been accused of anti-competitive practices by AA in a case dating back to 2011. The airline said Travelport had used various tactics to preserve its monopoly over AA’s distribution on the GDSs and had punished the carrier for seeking an alternative.
The settlement, currently undisclosed, has yet to be ratified by courts in the US, but Travelport said all litigation had now been resolved. A similar dispute between Sabre and AA resulted in a payment of around $280 million to the carrier.
Under the new contract, Travelport has offered the airline the technology to sell AA’s new Main Cabin Extra premium economy seating through the GDSs for the first time.
Dan Westbrook, Travelport’s vice president and general manager of Global Distribution Sales and Service said: “All of our subscribers will continue to access American’s full content.”