LONDON -- Eleven European airlines are joining forces to create the
first European, multiairline, on-line travel agency -- very much
like the on-line agency five U.S. airlines plan to launch this
summer.
British Airways, one of the partners, confirmed the other
participants in a May 11 announcement.
They are Air France, Lufthansa, Alitalia, KLM, Iberia, SAS, Aer
Lingus, Austrian Airlines Group (which includes regional carriers
Tyrolean Airways and Lauda Air), British Midland and Finnair.
Plans for the European site have been reported before, so the
announcement did not come as a surprise.
Travelers will be able to book flights to, from and within
Europe, and are promised access to the lowest fares via a Web site
in their own language.
They will also be able to book hotels, car rentals, insurance
and other travel services. The on-line agency will be managed
independently of the airlines, British Airways said.
The member airlines, it added, will remain competitors and will
not share pricing information.
ASTA and ARTA separately viewed the announcement of the proposed
European site with consternation. ASTA said it would quickly amend
a complaint filed earlier with the Justice Department regarding the
domestic airlines' Web site to include the proposed European
site.
"We have gone from bad to worse," ASTA president Joe Galloway
said in a statement. "Surely, the Department of Justice will want
to take into account the fact that the 'cartel-ization' of the
global airline industry is moving at breakneck speed."
ARTA president John Hawks predicted the European site would not
fly.
"We don't think it is going to get legal approval," Hawks said.
"The European Community laws regarding competition are so much
tougher than they are here in the U.S. We think it is dead on
arrival. The chance is slim to none that the European Community's
travel laws will allow the airlines to do this."
In February, Travel Weekly reported that seven European airlines
-- Air France, British Airways, Lufthansa, Alitalia, Iberia,
Swissair and Sabena -- were discussing a joint Web site.