Amadeus remains the fly in the ointment of European Global Distribution Systems (GDS) deregulation, despite the agreed sale of a majority stake in the Madrid-based company to private investment funds BC Partners and Cinven Group.
Lufthansa, Iberia and Air France, which currently own 46.7 per cent are expected to retain a minority shareholding not far short of that and might still wind up exercising unfair control over the reservations system inventory in their home countries, warned Bernard Harrop, American Express head of industry affairs.
Speaking at this week's Business Travel Show in London he said: "I think the deregulation issue is unlikely to be resolved this year. If there hadn't been any airline ownership of a GDS it would probably have been decided by now. Will their remaining stake in the company be enough to give them control over inventory? It's still open to question."
He said the EU was considering several options. It could eliminate the current code of practice altogether. It could keep some restrictions such as that preventing screen bias. Or it could create a mechanism to ensure local markets were protected against the "potential abuse of a dominant position".
When surveyed recently about the likely consequence of deregulation, over 90 per cent of corporate travel managers cited access to inventory as the most important issue. "What we want to ensure is a level playing field".
The GDSs remained the most flexible channel. "Talk of their death is premature. It will only happen if they do not adapt."
Technology was already in place to draw together the other channels of information – direct from suppliers, from consolidators, private fare deals, supplier portals and web searches. But he warned the task could become much more complex and expensive if airlines appeared in one GDS but not another, if fares varied between systems, or if carriers insisted on abandoning the GDS altogether and using one of the emerging, alternative booking engines.
"But the important thing is not which engine you use. The challenge is to ensure corporate clients get all the data they need, not just for procurement but for safety and security – so they know where all their people are."