View Comments

Home Opinion Editorials

American and Travelport have agreed to settle their marathon lawsuits against each other and to implement a long-term, global "full content" agreement. Pause. Applause.

Applause is warranted even though the parties are not releasing many details of their agreement. For the moment, these details don't matter. What matters most to American, Travelport and the rest of the travel industry is not what is in this agreement, but that an agreement exists and a lawsuit does not.

We have said over and over during these interminable airline/GDS suits and countersuits that the commercial relationships between these companies must be governed by negotiated agreements -- i.e., market solutions -- not by court orders and certainly not by edicts from the Transportation Department (DOT).

American several months ago reached a similar settlement and full-content agreement with Sabre that may have marked a turning point in the GDS wars.

American's agreement with Travelport should serve as a further signal that it's time for the rest of the industry to move the venue for change back to the marketplace, where it belongs.

It should also serve as a signal that the DOT can stand down and stop threatening to rain down rules and regulations.

The wars have gone on long enough.