CENDANT named Gordon Bethune, the former
Continental chairman and CEO, as non-executive chairman of Cendants
Travel Distribution Services unit. Bethune will play a key role in
selecting a CEO for TDS, and will remain with the group when
Cendant spins it off into a public company in October, Cendant
said. For now, Ronald Nelson will remain president and interim CEO
of TDS. Sam Katz ran TDS operations until he left Cendant in
December and his departure, along with the spin-off plan, created
the CEO opening.
AS AMERICAN
AIRLINES leads opposition to the Sabre-Amadeus
content-sharing agreement, the worlds largest airline is warning
travel agencies and corporations that it may not participate in all
reservations systems in the future and could institute a
cost-recovery program if agencies access flights through costly
distribution channels. In a letter to agents and corporations,
American advised agents to please consider adding other sources of
fare content or leaving yourself the flexibility to add other
sources of fare content. American spokesman Ryan Mikolasik told TravelWeekly.com that the climate has changed since
Northwest briefly implemented and withdrew a shared GDS fee in
2004. Mikolasik said American is weighing its legal options
regarding the Amadeus-Sabre pact, which it views as leading to a
negotiating cartel.
SABRE
TRAVEL NETWORK, meanwhile, signed KLM to a multi-year
full-content agreement. KLM already participates in the Sabre GDS.
The new agreement gives Sabre agents in Europe access to KLM fares
and inventory that it offers on KLM.com and its direct reservation outlets.
There is no distribution surcharge for this inventory, Sabre said.
Michael Qualantone, American Express vice president of global
distribution strategies, noted that among domestic carriers, Amex
now has access to Northwest and US Airways through 2011 via Sabre,
and separately Amex has its own agreements with Continental and
American through 2008. Amex several years ago entered into
agreements with Continental and American that guarantee their
availability in Amexs TravelBahn DS (Distribution Solution)
regardless if the two airlines drop out of a GDS. Qualantone said
Amex is actively pursuing TravelBahn DS agreements with other
airlines.
WORLDSPAN will lose one of its five largest
online customers, Travelocitys Site59, when the last-minute package specialist
moves to Sabre for booking-engine services in April. Since its
founding, Site59 has used Worldspan for GDS services. Site59
renewed its Worldspan contract after Sabre acquired it in March
2002. But Site59 has decided not to renew the pact again, Worldspan
said. The loss of Site59s bookings will be the latest in a series
of events that has moved a portion of Worldspans online business to
competitors. In the past year, Worldspan has lost Lastminute.com
after it was acquired by Sabre and eBookers after
Cendant bought it. Jay Rein, Worldspans vice president of
e-Commerce, said the loss of Site59 will not have a material impact
on Worldspans earnings.
ORBITZ began powering a sports travel site
for ESPN at http://sports.espn.go.com/travel/. A sub-section of ESPN.com, ESPN
Sports Travel Powered by Orbitz features sports travel planning
information for 16 North American cities and enables consumers to
book air, hotel, packages and destination services.