JetBlue Signs With Amadeus, Now Lists In All Major GDSs

Amadeus and JetBlue Airways today announced a long-term content agreement through which the global distribution system will give subscribers access to the low-cost carrier's fares and inventory.

JetBlue director of sales and distribution Noreen Courtney-Wilds in a statement said it joined the Amadeus GDS as a way to garner more corporate business. Amadeus is the last of the major GDSs this year to sign with the low-cost carrier. After more than a year of nonparticipation, JetBlue in August returned to the GDS channel with the announcement of full-content agreements with both Sabre and Galileo. JetBlue Airways and Worldspan last month also enacted a "full-content" agreement.

So far the new distribution agreements have been a boon to the carrier's business, CEO David Neeleman said last week during the carrier's third-quarter earnings call. Since it reestablished content relationships with Sabre, Galileo and Worldspan, JetBlue is "getting a greater amount of business from those GDSs than we thought we were going to get."

Neeleman said about 66 percent of bookings coming through the GDSs is new business to the carrier. "These are customers that we've never seen before," Neeleman said. JetBlue anticipates participation in the GDS channels will add as much as $100 million in incremental revenue to its bottom line next year.

Neeleman also said that fares purchased through GDS channels "are about $35 higher per segment, net of the cost of being in the CRSs than what we're getting from JetBlue.com." JetBlue reentered the GDS largely as a way to court business travelers, and so far it appears to be paying off, Neeleman said. He noted that "a big chunk" of GDS bookings are coming on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday—high time for corporate travelers.