Amadeus and its 11.5% part owner (and board member) Lufthansa, have not yet been able to reach agreement on the new PCA (Participating Carrier Agreement) despite some effort to resolve the dispute. So from Feb 1 (Germany and April 1 for Switzerland and Austria - not sure where those power houses of Lichtenstein and Luxembourg will sit), All Amadeus users in those markets will have to accept the autocharge of 4.90 Euros (5 CHF) per sector.
This creates as I have noted before a dilemma for the agents and potentially a game changing situation for the Madrid based GDS.
With a management change at the top of Amadeus - David Jones has been leading the charge against the surcharge, it will be interesting to see how far this one will go. So far the courts have in general sided with Lufthansa.
It does create a dual opportunity, for competitors Travelport and Sabre this is a market opportunity. For the airline - provided they have created enough infrastructure for direct booking (not currently well managed at the moment) there is a moment of opportunity there also. Irony should not be lost on all of us where the booking will end up at Amadeus anyway since the new PSS system of LH is now Amadeus CITP (aka Altea). However not as yet so obviously profitable as the in-direct
GDS booking - it has the potential to rise in price as Amadeus hosting piles on the additional "charges" for value added services via its PSS service.
The battle is not so much about the LH vs Amadeus spat - but rather about the long term self determination rights of the airline.
Be careful what you wish for though... it may come back to bite you.
Cheers
Timothy
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