So LH drops a rather large bomb on the German market

...and Austrian, Lichtenstein and Switzerland...

Having read the document and discussed the situation with a number of players inside and outside the Germanic markets - I believe that we are indeed achieving a tipping point of fundamental change in European distribution of airfares.

Here is the article and analysis from Michele MacDonald in her excellent newsletter TTU - Travel Technology Update and reprinted in ATW - Air Transport World.

Here is the public link where you can read the article.

http://www.atwonline.com/news/story.html?storyID=11477

Lufthansa is able to leverage its not inconsiderable market power within its home markets and those of its vassal carriers - Swiss Air Lines and Austria Airlines in their respective home markets.

This event is analogous to the expiration of the DCA contracts in the USA market. Clearly a lot of legal eagles have been working on this for some time!

For those of you who have been waiting for the other shoe to fall in Europe - folks this is it. Don't wait any longer. Go make sure you have an independent solution that allows GDS and non-GDS content to be combined in your own environment. Hopefully you can make a euro or two at it.

Cheers

Timothy