TOURISM AND COMPETITION 619 III. RULES ON COMPETITION AND AIRFARE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS: GDS VS NDC It is well known that the relationship between travel agents and airlines has undergone significant changes in recent years, with both types of companies shifting their role from strategic partners to another type of relationship. Airlines understand that, due to high costs, their exposure on the Internet and the fact that they are faced with much more expert and self-reliant users, it is necessary to lower costs, and in this regard travel agencies’ commissions were the first step. Therefore, due to these challenges and the emergence of the Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), travel agents need to implement changes and transform themselves. Consequently, airlines remain firm in their intention of reducing distribution costs. As previously stated, first they reduced commissions from 10% to 0%, afterwards, they realized that it was necessary to change the Global Distribution System (GDS), which until recently had been owned by the same economic groups that are part of the aviation companies: Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo and Travelport, among others. Once the airlines outsourced the global distribution systems to the GDS, the latter started to play their game with the travel agents, hence, airlines found themselves with less flexibility before clients and having to face the challenge of striking partnerships between GDSs and travel agents which, by resorting to incentives, commissions and malpractices, prevent a direct relationship between the transporter and the final customer, involving the airlines in a depersonalised system that, besides keeping them from knowing the user, is also expensive. Hence, airlines are faced with a system with problems, such as the GDS, which is obsolete and are progressing through IATA towards theNewDistribution Capability (NDC), which features a new language supported by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), as well as a greater real-time knowledge of passengers and no costs. Therefore, we are talking about a new language that allows increased billing, greater transparency and an improved relationship with clients by knowing their preferences and tastes. III.1. Characteristics of the GDS Model The GDS model is a distribution model characterised by concentration and geographical expansion; it was initially owned by the airlines but, due to the
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