As the Monday deadline for commenting on the U.S. Department of Transportation's proposed global distribution system regulations approaches, Worldspan senior vice president of strategic planning Jesse Liebman today said his company likely will be the first major party to respond.
"Most wait until the last minute," said Liebman, noting that Worldspan tomorrow will file more than 40 pages of comments. "We're ahead intentionally." The Atlanta-based GDS, in the midst of a proposed sale by its airline owners
(BTN, March 10), is taking the same general position it has for some time: that the rules should be tossed.
Liebman called it "certain" that the rules would be extended into early next year, as previously proposed by DOT. If the GDS industry is not deregulated, Liebman said, Worldspan is advocating suspension of the rules "for a couple years to see what happens, and then respond to what may arise from that." A less attractive solution, from Worldspan's perspective, is extending the rules without introducing new components and taking away those DOT has proposed eliminating
(BTN, Dec. 9).
"Clearly we could cherry pick the regulations in a way that might uniquely benefit Worldspan, but that's not what we're choosing to do," Liebman said, noting that the industry moves too quickly to be governed by regulations that go beyond the governmental oversight that applies to all commerce. "It's what we think makes sense as an overall matter for all parties in the industry."
A handful of small travel agencies in recent days filed statements with DOT opposing the rules as proposed.
Comments may be viewed at: http://dms.dot.gov/search/searchFormSimple.cfm, docket number 2881. Submit comments at: http://dmses.dot.gov/submit/dspSubmission.cfm.