ARTA has joined the Open Axis Group as an allied member, citing the "unwillingness of the U.S. Department of Transportation to intervene in forcing airlines to provide ancillary fee data to GDSs."
The organization also cited Delta’s decision to make its new international premium economy seats, Economy Comfort, available solely via direct distribution and Farelogix (an Open Axis member) and not via the GDS channel.
Open Axis was formed by major U.S. airlines to promote new XML messaging standards in the distribution of airline products, including ancillary services.
"We cannot ignore the ongoing expansion of alternative distribution tools outside the GDS environment and feel our members, in fact all travel agencies, owe it to themselves to keep abreast of these important developments,” ARTA Chairwoman Nancy Linares said in a statement. "Joining Open Axis will help ARTA maintain closer ties with these new distribution platforms and help us to assist our members in better understanding these options."
ARTA Managing Director Bruce Bishins added, "ARTA is convinced that GDSs will simply not provide the pricing and technology which airlines are demanding in their pursuit of cost reduction and more intimate relationships with travel agents.
"We see the growth of alternative distribution tools in the indirect channel (travel agencies and travel management companies) as the wave of the future, and we will do everything in our power to assist our U.S. and Canadian members to benefit from these new opportunities."
ARTA's sister organization, ARTA Canada, joined Open Axis earlier this year. Bishins is ARTA Canada's president.
ARTA said it would participate in the focus group announced by Open AXIS to address enhancements to the graphical elements included on the desktop solutions of these new booking tools. The next round of discussions takes place later this month.