Industry pulls together to protect ‘full content’ on CRS
The Business Travel Coalition has presented a joint-filing to the European Commission, urging it not to threaten travel agent and consumer safeguards with premature CRS deregulation in Europe.
Some 119 travel associations and executives worldwide, including the United Nations, the International Airline Passengers Association, the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association, Adidas Group, and IKEA, have signed the petition calling for ‘full content’ to be protected.
BTC chairman Kevin Mitchell explained: “For corporate travel managers, premature deregulation of the CRS industry in Europe represents an ominous threat to full airfare content that would needlessly plunge managed travel back into the distorted chaos of the pre-rules 1980s.
“So vital is access to full airfare content that travel managers have joined together across continents, industries and cultures to express to the EC the universality of the importance of complete and efficient access to all airfares offered in the marketplace and of the need to protect that access with bright line rules for as long as airline ownership of a CRS remains.”
QA Business Travel managing director Kevin Thom added: “To understand the imperative of maintaining core consumer protections, one has only to look at the history of vertical integration of airlines and CRSs before the Code of Conduct became law in 1989.
“Airlines abused their CRS ownership positions with impunity. Prematurely repealing the content-related rules will only frustrate travel agents’ and corporate travel managers’ ability to secure valuable content giving parent airlines carte blanche to withhold content from CRSs, other than the one they own. So long as airlines own a CRS in Europe, rules are necessary.”
According to the BTC, vertical integration between airlines and CRSs would lead to a dangerous phenomenon with double dominance of both the airline and distribution markets.
BTC’s Mitchell added: “Those of us who represent the interests of corporate travel managers are passionate and unified in support of these essential ‘full content’ rules.
“We call on the EC to give careful consideration and top priority to our consumer views as it decides this major regulatory issue.”
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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