De-regulation of the GDSs in Europe will make them more efficient but will not increase costs, Dr Fariba Alamdari, airlines expert, told a keynote session of the ACTE conference in Stockholm.
De-regulation, which might happen in Europe next year, will put pressure on the GDSs to cut their costs and some have already reacted to this, said Dr Alamdari. “It will also force them to re-structure,” she said.
Dr Alamdari, head of the air transport group at Cranfield University, England, said access to content was the major issue as at the moment content was so fragmented.
“There is a great role for the TMCs with this content fragmentation. They can add value but it has to be clear so that the corporates can sell the idea to their staff,” she said.
“De-regulation will have an impact on the TMCs but it should also force the GDSs to re-structure. It should make them more efficient and they are going through that transition period now,” she said.
Dr Alamdari also addressed the problems of the aviation industry where she said there was too much capacity and too many restrictions.
“The situation is better with airlines but it is not a profitable industry. There is a legacy of poor management and business complexity.
“They have a tendency to make life complicated and they have an obsession with market share and growth. Any fool can fill an aircraft at a $1 a seat but do you make money out of that?” she said.
“There are too many airlines chasing too few passengers. It's a basic law of economics that if you have too much capacity, it makes you push your prices down.
“There are also restrictions. For example, BA can't buy an American airline. In many industries you can consolidate. But you can't do that in this industry.”