Corporate travel industry groups have welcomed written confirmation from the European Commission that travel agencies and corporate clients must not be identified in booking data sold by the International Air Transport Association.
(Editor's Note: Please see an update to this story here.)In response to a question from Brian Simpson, a Member of the European Parliament, the Commission's transport directorate, DGTREN, confirmed that IATA's data product PaxIS is covered by the newly amended CRS (computer reservation system) Code of Conduct, which went into effect on March 29.
However, there is still mystery over whether IATA has taken steps to comply with the code by masking the identity of travel agents and corporate clients in the data. Corporate clients potentially can be identified if their bookings are handled through an agency implant with a unique IATA number.
"We are pleased that this response confirms the rules on the identification of agents," said Isabelle Leroy, legal adviser to the Guild of European Business Travel Agents. "Before 29 March, IATA was clearly identifying agents through IATA numbers and other information. Under the new code, this is not possible, but now we are waiting to see if it has stopped doing this."
IATA has not stated explicitly and did not respond to
EuroBTN's question as to whether it has taken action since March 29 to mask agency and client identities. In a written statement to
EuroBTN, it said: "IATA is aware that the Amended EU CRS Code of Conduct entered into effect on 29 March 2009. IATA believes that its PaxIS suite of products complies with these regulations, but we have initiated discussions with the relevant regulatory officials in an effort to assure that it meets applicable legal requirements."
The head of the public affairs committee for the U.K. and Ireland's Institute of Travel & Meetings, Chris Reynolds, expressed frustration with IATA. "We are very surprised at IATA's stance," he said. "It's an easy question: Will you mask identities as per the legislation, yes or no? If IATA doesn't, then we would support any action the European Commission would take."
In its response to Brian Simpson, the Commission wrote: "The Commission can confirm that airlines are covered by the above legislation relating to the disclosure of travel agent identity in all market, booking and sales data products. The Commission considers that the protection of business data is a fundamental point of the Code of Conduct. Therefore, it is in close contact with IATA, the CRSs [global distribution systems] and travel agents on this matter. At this stage, the Commission is not aware that IATA will refuse to mask the identity of individual travel agencies in those products if it does not have the agencies' specific consent to have their identity revealed in IATA's data products."