Global technology company Amadeus has begun a major move to persuade more low cost carriers (LCCs) to put their content on its global distribution system.
The company has launched a Ticketless Access scheme enabling no frills carriers to put their fare information directly onto Amadeus's system and avoid going through the American Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO).
This reduces the cost for LCCs wishing to put their fares on a GDS.
Amadeus has launched the scheme with Danish LCC Sterling which began putting its fares up on the system last week.
Stephane Durand, Amadeus's managing director for the UK and Ireland, said that all seven remaining slots in the scheme for 2006 had already been taken by other LCCs.
He said Amadeus was in talks with what he called "key" low cost carriers and was confident others would be joining the scheme in the next couple of years.
Mr Durand said a main discussion point was "whether they would put all their fares that are on their website with us."
He added: "A lot of time and effort has gone into this. We have dedicated teams working with the LCCs and we hope to get the right LCCS in the UK and Ireland enrolled with us."
Currently Amadeus has 35 LCCs, including 21 from Europe, on its GDS.
Mr Durand said joining the GDS was better than screen scraping, the method used by agents to get information on low cost fares which he said was both "unreliable and limited."
He said LCCs could also get a better yield by going through Amadeus. Research done by the company on routes operated by one LCC showed that Amadeus could get yields of up to 100 more than the airline could selling through its website.
Mr Durand said that Amadeus would also be launching a new rail booking tool for the UK to replace the outgoing ELGAR system by the summer of 2007.
* see BTE Analysis