Travelport GDS today said it has signed a four-year "full content" agreement with Air France-KLM, effectively shielding its subscribers from the carriers' proposed €4.50 per-segment surcharge, initially intended to go into effect on June 1 in France and mid-July in the Netherlands.
Travelport today said the new agreement is effective immediately for subscribers of its Galileo and Worldspan properties. "We are delighted to have reached this agreement with Air France-KLM and can guarantee full content to all of our travel agency customers for the next four years," Travelport GDS vice president of airline development in Europe, Middle East and Africa Matthew Hall said in a statement today.
Air France-KLM's now-rectified proposal to impose a surcharge in home markets called to mind a similar surcharge Lufthansa and its Swiss subsidiary initiated last year in Germany, Austria and Switzerland—a €4.90 per-way surcharge plus value-added tax on fares booked through the Amadeus GDS.
Amadeus has yet to come to terms with Lufthansa to shield its subscribers from the Preferred Fares Program surcharge, and stands to lose "significant" marketshare in Germany as a result, depending on "what deals are being made with our competition," said country manager Holger Taubmann this month during a conference of the German travel buyer association VDR in Cologne
(BTNonline, April 20).
Sabre's agreement with Lufthansa and Swiss shields subscribers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland from the surcharge through June 30. Sabre earlier this month said it is "in negotiations to establish a new deal that gives agencies and corporations continued access to Lufthansa's full content."