Sabre is removing the sanctions it imposed
on Air Canada for pulling its Tango fares from the system, and Air
Canada said it was continuing negotiations to try to resolve its
differences with all of the GDSs.
That includes more
discussions with Sabre, presumably about the fate of Tango fares.
But neither Air Canada nor Sabre would comment, other than to
confirm that talks were ongoing.
In the meantime,
Sabre began removing its sanctions against Air Canada on Nov. 3 and
expected to remove all of them by mid-November.
Sabre spokeswoman
Kathryn Hayden said the sanctions removal "reflects the progress we
have made in our discussions with Air Canada to provide for the
availability of the Air Canada content in our system. We look
forward to providing the full availability of the fares in a way
that meets the needs of the travel agency community as well as Air
Canada and travelers."
Air Canada also saw
the action as a positive step.
"We see this as a
sign of their commitment to meet our needs," said Air Canada
spokesman John Reber.
Sabre's decision
marks a major turnaround from the poisoned atmosphere that appeared
to exist between Air Canada and the GDSs since May, when Air Canada
withdrew its Tango fares from the systems.
Air Canada withdrew
Tango fares, the lowest it offers, after declaring that the GDSs
were unable or unwilling to display and sell the fares in the way
the airline wanted: with options for customers to pay extra for a
seat assignment and get a reduced fare for agreeing not to check
any baggage.
The dispute
appeared to be not just over the technological ability of the GDSs
to offer such a la carte options, but over the question of whether
the airline or the GDSs should be responsible for paying to develop
that capability.
Sabre retaliated by
removing Air Canada premium inventory classes C, J and Y from its
displays. It also biased flight displays against Air Canada,
ensuring other airlines' inventory would appear higher on agents'
screens when the prices were equal.
The sanctions did
not apply to points of sale in Canada and Europe, where the GDSs
are regulated.
While Sabre is
removing its sanctions, there is no word yet from Travelport's
Apollo and Galileo reservations systems, which also retaliated when
Air Canada pulled the Tango fares. Agents using Apollo and Galileo
in areas other than Canada and Europe cannot retrieve Air Canada
flights in non-airline-specific, low-fare queries. To access Air
Canada flights, agents have to search for them specifically.
Travelport did not return calls seeking comment.
Sabre's move to
lift its sanctions came despite Air Canada's Oct. 27 implementation
of another revision to its fare structure that again left GDSs with
a diminished product.
The changes
narrowed the number of fare categories from five to four: Tango,
Tango Plus, Latitudes and Executive Class. It added more a la carte
options for Tango and also made some a la carte options available
for Tango Plus and Latitudes fares. None of those options is
available in the GDSs, at least for now.
Also, under the
revised structure, Latitude fares offered on the airline's Web
sites will be adjusted constantly, based on the best available
Tango Plus fare available at the time of the request.
Air Canada said GDS
technology does not allow for that much flexibility, with fare
changes typically loaded by the airline once or twice a day. So GDS
users will not get the same range of Latitude fares.
Even before Sabre
decided to lift sanctions, Marc Rosenberg, Air Canada's vice
president for sales and product distribution, told Travel Weekly
that the airline's relationship with the GDSs had improved, with
ongoing negotiations that could someday get Tango fares back into
those systems.
"The focus is on
how they can deliver Air Canada merchandising or selling of
attributes," he said. "It's more a conversation of how can they and
what do they need to do to keep up with us."
To
contact reporter Andrew Compart, send e-mail to [email protected].