TRAVEL consultants in China are anticipating the increase in competition for airfare distribution, while GDSs are gearing up for a share of the market.
Effective October 1, foreign airlines will be able to use GDSs for fare distribution for the first time. However, the regulation is currently not applicable to domestic airlines. All airlines with domestic and international bookings in and out of China currently have to operate via TravelSky.
“We are still considering which GDS to use, but I think (the use of foreign GDS) is going to slowly increase and will force TravelSky to be more competitive,” said Hong Kong Four Seas Travel, general manager – Greater China business travel, Jonathan Kao, who is based in Shanghai.
Creamy Chen, general manager, Century Holiday International Travel Service Guangzhou, said: “From a consumer’s point of view, this new policy means more choice of airlines and transparent pricing.” She added that her company had not been approached by any foreign GDSs yet.
Amadeus China managing director, Bart Tompkins, said the GDS was assisting airlines in sending in individual nominations for their travel agency partners.
He added: “We are targeting all levels of travel consultants in key cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, as well as growing second-tier cities.”
Tompkins expects actual bookings to start by the second half of next year.
However, Brett Henry, vice-president, commercial and marketing, Abacus International, pointed out that kinks remained. “One of the limitations is that all bookings by Chinese agencies via a foreign GDS are still subject to the Civil Aviation Administration of China’s approval,” he said.
“The deregulation also only applies to flights on international carriers, which means that local flight ticketing is still not open to foreign GDSs, which may ultimately lose out on the biggest chunk of the travel industry, with 80 per cent of air seats (belonging to) domestic flights.”
