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HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — When Google’s vice president of travel, Jeremy Wertheimer, stepped on stage at the PhoCusWright conference here two weeks ago, he surprised many in the audience with his explanation as to why Google’s Flight Search results do not include links to online travel agencies.

If they did, Wertheimer said, the airlines would not participate.

“The airlines said, ‘We will not give you content if you provide booking links to OTAs,’” Wertheimer told the audience.

The notion that any company could dictate such parameters to Google came as a surprise to many. And the idea that any company would challenge its ability to show up as a result in any part of a Google search seems almost outlandish.

But the statement also raises consumer issues regarding competition and whether the airlines are inhibiting competition by dictating such limitations on search results.

PhoCusWright analyst Carroll Rheem said that not including OTAs eliminates major options from Google’s Flight Search results, such as interline itineraries.

She added that this could be an area where the government would have to get involved because consumers could be denied access to cheaper itineraries as a result.

“Elements like that detract from competitiveness,” Rheem said. “Should [the airlines] be allowed to dictate how a search engine displays fares?”

Wertheimer said that this limitation was true for the metasearch engine Kayak, as well. But in Kayak’s case it applied to only two airlines, Delta and American. Kayak otherwise does show OTA options, whereas so far Google’s Flight Search returns no OTAs for any results.

Rheem said Google’s assertion that the airlines are playing tough is not far-fetched.

“Commercial negotiation with airlines can be really rough,” she said. “I imagine they would have pulled out the stops to make sure their position was maintained. ... Ultimately, if you have the choice to show only OTAs or supplier websites, the airline websites are the larger channel.”

In response to follow-up questions, Google released a statement saying it was “exploring advertising opportunities within the page to showcase the products and services from other relevant partners, including our OTA and metasearch partners.”

Google said it recently launched an experimental ad format on the Flight Search results page that enables users to repeat their flight searches on advertiser websites.

“While just a start, we look forward to expanding our advertising efforts with partners and to continue experimenting with different formats, placements and targeting capabilities,” Google stated.

The OTAs are clearly not pleased with Google’s position and have publicly said so.

In a statement submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September when the antitrust subcommittee held a hearing on Google, Orbitz Worldwide said, “We were surprised that the launch version of Google Flight [Search] does not provide links to OTAs, only to a handful of select airlines, despite the fact that OTAs represent nearly 40% of all travel booked online.”

Also speaking at the PhoCusWright conference, Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said, “We would like to be included, especially to the extent that Google is all about choice. The OTAs are an incredibly important choice for consumers.”
Khosrowshahi added: “The good news here is air isn’t core to us from a revenue basis. But it is a product we are going to watch for the long term.”

In terms of Google’s overall growth in both flight and hotel search, Khosrowshahi said that Expedia is concerned about Google “creeping into our space.”

However, he added that the search engine giant “has always been consistent about being in the demand-generation business and not in the transactional business. And I think as long as they stay where they say they are going to stay, we think we can find a way to partner with them from a long-term perspective.”

Charlie Leocha, director of the Consumer Travel Alliance, a watchdog group based in Washington, said the omission of OTAs and metasearch from Flight Search’s results is “limiting consumers’ knowledge.”

“This is a situation where Google is trusted as a ‘search engine’ that goes across the whole Web, but it is only going to a small select group of airlines and including them in Flight Search,” he said. “If Google keeps this up, they will come under more scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission] in terms of monopolistic practice.”

Leocha said the practice was “unfair to consumers, and that’s my biggest concern. They are limiting the choices that consumers have. If you are only working with the airlines, it eliminates all things that OTAs do, such as combine airlines to get your best route and price. ... The ultimate result is that consumers are being excluded from really knowing what the best price is to travel on a ticket somewhere.”

Leocha said he was “floored” by Wertheimer’s revelation that the airlines had made a lockout of OTAs a condition of their participation.

“The first airline that says I don’t want to be in Google, woe to them,” he said. “Google and the airlines have a sweetheart deal with each other, and the consumers are getting screwed.”