SABRE-US
AIRWAYS: With most of its airline content agreements
expiring in mid-2006, Sabre extended its GDS contract with US
Airways for one year. US Airways, which is in bankruptcy court and
on track to merge with America West in the fall, was the first
signer of a Sabre Direct Connect Availability-3 (DCA-3) contract in
October 2002, and it just became the first to renew. The pact,
which gives Sabre access to all of US Airways publicly available
fares in exchange for booking fee discounts, was extended to
October 2006. An extension implies very similar terms and
conditions, said Sabre Chairman and CEO Sam Gilliland, adding that
he expects other new contracts to come with varying terms and
earnings impacts. US Airways would not discuss the contract other
than to confirm there still is one. But a source who is familiar
with these types of contracts said they automatically renew if the
airlines do not reject them. Under the bankruptcy court process, US
Airways still could reject the contract before the carriers
emergence from Chapter 11. And that could be important because
America West doesnt have a DCA-3 or similar contract. Gilliland
said Sabre hopes to come to terms with the merged entity.
TRAVELOCITY-YAHOO, EXPEDIA-MSN:Travelocity
extended its contract one year, through 2006, as the exclusive air,
car and hotel provider to Yahoo Travel. The deal, which had been slated
to expire at the end of 2005, had a renewal option for 2006 and
another for 2007. Travelocity wouldnt discuss the agreements
details. Michelle Peluso, Travelocitys CEO, however, did say: We
have built strong down-side protections into the contract extension
to preserve the value of our investment in our partnership. The
Yahoo-Travelocity relationship has been under pressure since Yahoo
bought search-engine FareChase, with Travelocity arguing that
FareChases focus on price is not in Travelocitys -- or anyones --
interests. So, as part of the renewal deal, Travelocity declined to
participate in the Yahoo/FareChase metasearch effort either under
the Travelocity or Yahoo Travel brands, Peluso said.
MEANWHILE, IN
LOCKING UP A PORTAL DEAL for itself, Expedia Inc. expanded
its agreement with MSN. In contrast to earlier agreements that
solely had Expedia.com powering MSNs travel offering, the new
agreement also takes in Expedias Hotels.com, Hotwire and TripAdvisor.
Expedia said it was not ready to discuss how its sister companies
will be displayed on MSN.
BOOK EM,
DANNO: Despite earlier statements to the contrary from Expedia.com,
Sabre said it expects to process some of the online agencys
segments over time, meaning sometime in 2005. Bottom line is we
expect bookings from that relationship, said Sabre chairman and CEO
Sam Gilliland. We have a very good relationship with [Expedia],
Gilliland said. We have a contract with them, and over time we
expect the contract will deliver bookings. Expedia, though,
declined to comment on Gillilands statements, which came during
Sabres second quarter earnings call, other than to say that its
relationship with Sabre is dandy. The issue revolves around the two
companies five-year agreement, signed in May 2004, which would have
Sabre providing GDS functionality to Expedia.com, taking some
segments away from Worldspan. The Expedia.com-Sabre contract has
not been implemented, and last month Expedia.com stated that it had
decided not to put development resources into connecting the two
companies systems. Asked about the prolonged gap between the
contract signing and implementation, Gilliland said Expedia needs
to put more development resources into the effort and that
implementation is in the queue.
BOOKING
BUILDER TECHNOLOGIES upgraded its Booking Builder Desktop,
a fare search and booking tool that provides access to more than 25
carriers, including Southwest and Jet Blue. Among the tweaks, the
new version enables travel agency owners and travel managers to
customize airline prompts to highlight preferred vendors, whether
they are GDS participants or not. Booking Builder can be integrated
with the four GDSs, as well as Trams ClientBase Plus and
back-office accounting systems. Booking Builder Technologies claims
its Instant Fare Quote product, which is part of the desktop, can
retrieve JetBlue fares in 3 to five seconds because BookingBuilder
distributes the collection and processing of flights and fares
across all computers running the application, instead of focusing
all requests to go through a central server.