Amadeus Says Air France-KLM Surcharge Is ‘Never in the Best Interest of Travelers’

On Nov. 3, Air France and KLM announced that starting April 1, 2018, they will charge an 11 Euro (US $13) surcharge per one-way segment for all traditional GDS bookings.

In a letter following the news, president and CEO of Amadeus North America Scott Gutz said that his company’s take is still that “indirect distribution through travel agencies remains the most cost-efficient solution for all parties on a global scale.”

“We continue to believe that travelers today are looking for consistency, transparency and choice. Amadeus can deliver that best by connecting and integrating all players with all content in all channels,” he added.

According to Gutz, the surcharge doesn’t have any relation to the actual costs of booking in Amadeus and there is no difference in costs between booking direct and indirect for “large network carriers.”

“A decision to try to shift bookings from one channel to another is purely a business decision, not a cost issue,” he said, adding that the motivation behind the move seems to be for the carriers to get better service to their travelers.

Amadeus is currently NDS level three as an IT provider and level one as an aggregator. It expects to be certified level three as an aggregator sometime next year.