Worldspan's Graham Nichols
After a relatively low profile since its sale in 2003, Worldspan is emerging with new products and a new strategy. Graham Nichols, its vp and general manager EMEA, talks to BTE.
If there is one thing that Graham Nichols is clear about it is that Worldspan, one of the world's four leading GDSs, will follow a different strategy from its three rivals.
There are two areas where this is most obvious. Worldspan is not going to buy online agencies and it is not likely to leap into the current fad for consultancy and set up a separate company.
"What we don't do is own an online agency which would be a new business that would compete with us.
"Other GDSs own both on- and offline agencies but we believe this is a conflict of interest. We have a very clear strategy that we will not own an agency business. As there is more and more consolidation, these companies are becoming bigger and bigger. For example lastminute.com competes with Sabre," Mr Nichols said.
On consultancy, he said Sabre had chosen to set up a separate consultancy but Worldspan offered consultancy services to its clients as part of its IT offer. "We provide technology to the travel industry and we do a lot of consultancy for the industry.
"But we would not set it up as separate business to make money. It is a slightly different approach but I do not say that we never would," he said.
"We have a different strategy and that will become more obvious to people in the industry. People will have to choose which of these strategies they will support. Some will choose us and others will not. The market will become more polarised," he said.
"We are happy to be different – that is the route we want to go down."
Mr Nichols takes a more orthodox line on the GNEs and long awaited European de-regulation of the GDSs.
"We see them as Limited Distribution Entrants. That is true whatever the hype. They offer very limited distribution to a few airlines. What they have kept very quiet about is that for other airlines they use the GDSs.
"They have a right to replicate what we offer but it will cost them a lot of money. We have fantastic technology with hundreds of people working on it. We also work closely with Microsoft.
"We are not complacent about them but we do not see them as a really serious threat now. But if they had the funds to invest and catch up and replicate us, that would be a challenge."
On GDS de-regulation, Mr Nichols said Worldspan had supported it in the United States and supported it here, providing there were safeguards because of the stakes that Air France, Lufthansa and Iberia have in Amadeus.
But he warned that GDSs would not want the same price for every deal with every airline. "We support it and are ready for a lot of work. There is potentially a different deal with each airline. It could be a completely different model with each airline – how much volume do we give them and how much do they give us?"
On new products, Mr Nichols said the company has just launched its Worldspan e-Pricing technology across most countries of Western Europe in June, following its introduction in the UK in May. The technology delivers a good choice of options for agencies.
With content more fragmented, Worldspan also introduced earlier this year RateRunner which provides access to low cost carriers. "It is completely integrated with our desktop and when a low cost carrier is booked, it goes down to the back office," he said.
"People want the ability to look at these fares. They are not always cheaper but they want the ability to compare.”
Worldspan is also planning to launch a tool to allow access to Eurostar fares, prices and seat plans by the end of the year. This will be followed by software which will cover all train companies in Europe.
"We have access but more development is needed to display their content as with airlines. It is up to the train companies to work with us. They are beginning to see how important this is," Mr Nichols said.
As with their rivals, Worldspan has signed full content deals with all the major airlines of North America and Europe. This Mr Nichols sees as the traditional role of the GDS which is not likely to change significantly in the next three to four years.
The changes he feels are likely to be in the development of markets in the Middle and Far East. Worldspan recently signed a deal with Calleo Technologies in India.
"The US market is saturated and the main players well-established. Where we are seeing the strong growth is Middle East, China and India," he said.
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