To GDS, or not to GDS. That is the question.
To borrow from Romney's colourful debating, when it comes to the GDS, Pumpkins, the airlines are like a bunch of bindered women. They are tied up in legacies - with no freedom to unbundle; powerless to offer their clients personalized favours. Well, dahrlings, I seem to have slipped on the rub of the matter here. Whose client is it anyway?
Tired of GDS bondage, the airlines and IATA are plotting a new distribution system. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but did they not create the old distribution systems? Rather a fitting Halloween story: Dr. Frankenstein plotting to kill his rogue monster.)
Enter ACTA and ARTA. The dynamic duo is debating the merits of IATA's NDC. According to ACTA, it's evil. All the airlines want to have direct access to the folks who fly on their planes. Well, of course they want to talk to the folks who sit in their seats. They've always wanted to have those relationships. Who wouldn't?
ARTA, on the other hand, is saying that ACTA should have had their acta together when IATA 1st began planning the NDC. As so often is the case, they are the Johnny come lately to the table and want in. Wakey, wakey.
The point is, dahrlings, the airlines are not plotting to cut you out so much as wanting freedom from old systems which hinder their ability to market. Whether it's the NDC or some other invention, the legacy GDS' are the walking dead.
