GDS Business Reservations With Air France-KLM Will Be Surcharged

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Corporate reservations that are not enabled via NDC will be subject to a cost of 13 euros per one-way ticket beginning this spring, according to Air France KLM.

As part of that process, the airline group will discontinue the use of private-channel contracts, which previously permitted certain corporate travel firms to escape the premium on legacy GDS reservations.

The change, which was verified by the airline company to Travel Weekly, was first reported in France and afterwards published by The Beat.

“If you are on NDC, you will not be charged the 26 euro fee. It will only be possible to levy the premium if the agency continues to operate in the usual GDS context “Helen Ames, a spokesperson for Air France-KLM, confirmed the report.

Air France-KLM began charging a GDS surcharge of 11 euros one-way for leisure reservations in 2018, and has subsequently increased the amount to 13 euros per person, each flight. The decision was made as part of the airline group’s effort to drive travel agents into direct-channel sales that are enabled by the NDC. Amadeus and Travelport, but not Sabre, have since signed into NDC indirect-channel agreements with Air France-KLM as a result of this decision.

Currently, 80 percent of leisure OTA traffic is enabled by NDC, according to Ames, who said that leisure agencies have been steadily shifting their business with Air France-KLM to NDC channels. She said that the private-channel agreements have served as a method to help business agencies while transitioning to an NDC-enabled retailing environment.

Air France-KLM does not impose the 13 euro premium for reservations booked via Travelport or Amadeus that are NDC-enabled, according to Ames. However, a “minor surcharge” is still applied. She refused to provide an estimate of the amount.

As reported by The Beat, Air France KLM stated late last year that transactions involving NDC-enabled transactions inside Travelport would be subject to a premium ranging from 1.40 euro to 3 euro. The airline company claims that these statistics are comparable to the surcharges calculated inside the Amadeus global distribution system.