Air Canada Broadens Its Relationship with Amadeus

Air Canada signed an expanded agreement with Amadeus that gives Amadeus “full access to all inventory that they are able to consume,” according to Duncan Bureau, vice president of global sales for the carrier.

Air Canada will use Amadeus Fare Families and Amadeus Ancillary Services, providing travel agent subscribers with access to the airline’s merchandising content.

At this point, everything will be transacted in the GDS system, Bureau said, but “moving forward we will have an API connection that Amadeus will build to,” opening the door to more content and opportunities.

Air Canada’s Flight Passes and some ancillary products are currently not in the Amadeus GDS, he said. The new agreement will give travel agents more confidence that they are seeing the full range of content, and “they won’t need to toggle between systems.”

That, in turn, will give consumers more confidence that they won’t find a better fare somewhere else, he said.

But for now, “it’s about getting product onto the shelf to be as visible to as many subscribers as possible,” he said.

Air Canada last year began a major international expansion that is ongoing. “We carry 38 passengers a year, and by 2020 we expect to carry 50 million a year,” Bureau said. Amadeus has the largest GDS market share in the world, so it made sense for the carrier to broaden its relationship with the company.

The new deal is a full-content agreement, but Bureau said it provides a bit of “wiggle room” so that the carrier can respond more effectively to competition.

For example, he said, if a low-cost carrier files a new fare, Air Canada can match it immediately on its website; it won’t have to wait for its response to make its way through the next round of thrice-daily fare filing.

“Both sides removed some old sacred cows” from the agreement, he said.