VIEWS OF THE TRAVEL TRADE ON EUROPEAN LEGISLATION ON CRSs Michel de Blust Secretary General, ECTAA - GEBTA

ECTAA GEBTA  Together represent businesses in Europe  IATA travel agencies in Europe issued 138 million tickets in 2006 (IATA BSP data)  The vast majority of ticket sales on network carriers are processed through CRSs

Why is CRS regulation crucial for ECTAA-GEBTA? 1. No EU Internal Market for air transport  Fragmentation and Dominances 2. Strong potential for abuses leading to increases of costs and final prices 3. Differentiated content between distribution channels at the detriment of travellers

Fragmentation, dominance and potential for abuse  EU air transport market ≠ US market Dominance of airlines and ultra- dominance of CRSs on national markets  Potential for abuse as soon as airline and CRS have profit redistribution / even stronger potential if double dominance  Special concerns for 3 markets : France, Germany, Spain

Without specific rules  Reinforcement of dominant positions, notably for associated airline and CRS  Increase of costs / final price for travellers  Difficulty to provide comprehensive and neutral offer, especially for SME travel agents  Difficulty and delays to apply general competition rules

Parent carrier mandatory participation  Absolute necessity to put effective obligations on parent carriers:  Non-discrimination in access to content and bookings  Prohibition to link the use of a CRS to any incentive/disincentive  EU market: those safeguards must be applicable to any carrier with control or any level of ownership stake in a CRS

Access to fares  Online/offline travel agents: only neutral access to comprehensive air transport offer thanks CRSs.  Liberalisation of access to fares :  Increase of costs for CRS/travel agents (e.g. US) + risk of final price increase for travellers  in EU market: risks of content fragmentation between distribution channels  Optimum review of CRS Regulation: guarantee unbiased and reasonably priced access to full content for all CRS subscribers

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