Lufthansa will charge UK agents £11.30 per GDS booking from Tuesday as it remains committed to transforming distribution by imposing a worldwide Distribution Cost Charge (DCC).
The carrier’s UK regional director, Christian Schindler, hailed the €16 charge as “a game changer”.
Confirmation of the DCC in sterling came as the European Commission was poised to receive at least two further complaints against Lufthansa.
Meanwhile a leading group of corporate travel agents began a policy of non-cooperation with Lufthansa this week.
The 66 members of the Advantage Focus Partnership told Lufthansa and group carriers Swiss, Austrian and Brussels Airlines of the move in writing, as Advantage corporate director Ken McLeod declared: “This fee is unacceptable in its current form.”
He warned: “Make no mistake, the distribution network in its current form will be irreparably damaged by differential pricing on this scale by a major airline.”
He added: “If successful, this will be replicated across the airline industry.”
The group’s policy of non-cooperation began “with immediate effect” and means no training, marketing, sales calls, events, fam trips or “similar activities” with Lufthansa group airlines.
The Advantage Focus Partnership members have a single commercial contract with Lufthansa.
McLeod stressed that Advantage members outside the Focus Partnership were not part of the policy and do not necessarily endorse the group’s stance.
He said the GDS booking fee represented “a drive by Lufthansa to discriminate against travel management companies and the wider agency community by imposing a differential pricing structure between the GDS and their own trade website”.
Read full article at: Travolution
