American Airlines caused a storm in April last year when it made some of its content only available to travel agencies booking via IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) technology standard.
The move meant many of the lowest fares were no longer available from corporate online booking tools and travel management companies (TMC).
Amtrav, which books American flights via NDC technology, has been monitoring the results since the April implementation and said that on average since then the fares on AA.com or accessible through NDC have been lower 47% of the time – up to as much as 63% in November – and those booking elsewhere are paying about 10% more per booking.
Subscribe to our newsletter below
The differences observed in fares in the direct or NDC channel compared to corporate booking tools also cut across different fare types and cabins as well as domestic and international routes, according to Amtrav.
Between April and July economy and premium fares were lower 39% of the time with an average savings of 8% per booking, while from August through December fares were lower 55% of the time with an average savings of 11%. Meanwhile, savings were higher on domestic routes than international routes with savings of between 8% and 12% recorded for U.S. routes.
At The Beat Live event in December, Amtrav chief executive Jeff Klee said that airlines are no longer content with the status quo when it comes to distribution adding that there is still time to resolve the situation.
