Northwest Inks Farelogix Content Deal; CO, Sabre Sign
Continental Airlines yesterday signed a five-year distribution arrangement with Sabre, representing the carrier's second GDS deal signed this year—its first contract was with Worldspan—and the GDS's fifth deal with a legacy carrier. Concurrent with the agreement, Sabre said, Continental also entered into a full-content agreement with Travelocity.
The deal leaves American as the only major carrier that has yet to sign with the global distribution system. American has been the most vocal against a deal between Sabre and Amadeus—dubbed "Sabredeus" by one airline executive at the Association of Corporate Travel Executives annual conference last week—that allows the two GDSs to share content should a carrier not sign with one. Continental also has spoken out against the deal as well as distribution economics.
"We are pleased to provide Sabre subscribers with access to our full content offering through this agreement," said Jim Compton, executive vice president of marketing for Continental Airlines. "Continental has been a strong advocate for change on distribution efficiency through the GDS channel. This new agreement will help us to make additional progress towards that goal."
Meanwhile, Northwest Airlines yesterday signed an unspecified long-term agreement with Farelogix providing access to the carrier's full content for agency and corporate subscribers of the travel distributor. Northwest vice president of distribution and e-commerce Al Lenza said the deal is effective immediately.
"Our objective is to establish as many electronic distribution relationships as long as it's cost-competitive for what we need to get to," Lenza said. "So far, we have two GDS deals, Farelogix, G2 and our own travel agency portal. All those sites will get full content and nondiscriminatory guarantees."
Northwest in 2004 was among several carriers to sign a similar agreement with G2 SwitchWorks, another entrant in the corporate travel distribution marketplace. "They're similar in concept but differ in how they operate in the agency environment," Lenza said of today's announcement as it compares with the G2 deal. "They're kind of a middleware that travel agents install."