For several years, large European airlines in particular have moved away from full-content deals with global distribution systems, and have levied surcharges on bookings made through GDSs. This year, Air France-KLM took another step in redefining the relationship among carriers, GDSs and travel management companies, signing a deal with Amadeus that allows the GDS access to the carrier's New Distribution Capability-piped content, but only to those agencies that reach separate agreements with the carrier and the GDS.
Air France-KLM vice president of distribution Emmanuelle Gailland in September contrasted the new deal with a typical "GDS-type agreement" in comments to BTN portfolio mate The Beat, in which the carrier group would "supply the fares, the schedules and the availability to the GDS, and they build our offer and they distribute to whomever they want. … It's not at all that type of agreement."
Air France-KLM in July processed about 15 percent of its agency bookings via NDC connections, primarily through non-GDS aggregators like Travelfusion or direct connects. Under the terms of this deal, Gailland said Amadeus users will be subject to a surcharge of "a few euros per segment, per passenger" to book Air France-KLM's NDC content, unlike the carrier group's deals with aggregators like Travelfusion. Unlike the private-channel deals it once negotiated to shield agencies from booking surcharges, under this deal, "we're not going to waive the [Amadeus NDC] surcharge for anybody," she said. The surcharge is there to cover our costs. That's very clear."
For Gailland, the terms reflect the carrier's desire for control of its content. "We keep the control of our distribution network and our content—meaning we choose the agents we want to distribute NDC to," she said, "and we discuss and we agree [on] the content with them."