Travelport seals new GDS deal with British Airways and Iberia

British Airways parent International Airlines Group (IAG) has struck a new distribution deal with GDS Travelport.

British Airways parent International Airlines Group (IAG) has struck a new distribution deal with GDS Travelport.

A previous deal expired before Christmas as negotiations continued amid what initially were notably heated public pronouncements.

However the two sides have been negotiating behind closed doors since and have been confident an agreement will be reached for some weeks.

In the meantime the previous arrangement was rolled over, despite IAG’s initial warning it would start adding fees for booking certain fares.

The new multi-year, full content agreement covers British Airways and Iberia and comes in with immediate effect.

The protracted nature of the talks over a new agreement this renewal round is understood to have been, at least in part, the commercial impact of Iberia on IAG and the airline’s desire that this was taken account of.

Travelport said the IAG airlines will continue to work with it to add ancillary content and both airlines are also working to trial its rich content and branding technology, which the GDS claims to set to revolutionise distribution.

This component of the GDSs new Merchandising Platform is understood to have been significant part of Travelport’s offering to IAG and will play an important role going forward.

Silvia Cairo, head of group commercial planning and policy at IAG said: “We are wholly committed to supporting the travel agency channel and we are pleased to have reached a multi-year agreement with Travelport,”

“We have a long standing relationship with Travelport and look forward to working with Travelport’s travel agency customers ever more closely together in the coming years.”

Simon Ferguson, regional director, UK and Ireland for Travelport, added: “Both British Airways and Iberia are important, longstanding strategic airline partners and I’m delighted that we are announcing these agreements today.

“We have made significant progress delivering a unique merchandising offering and this, combined with our extensive global network of connected travel agents, enables us to offer extraordinary value to our airline partners.”