Turkish Airlines fares will no longer be bookable in Sabre beginning Sept. 1. Each party is blaming the other for a failure to reach a content agreement.
"Despite
the positive and constructive approach Turkish Airlines has shown in
continuing its participation in Sabre under similar conditions as with
our other GDS partners, this effort has not been reciprocated by Sabre,"
Turkish Airlines wrote in an email to travel advisors.
Turkish Airlines inventory will remain available "on other GDS platforms," the airline said.
A statement from Sabre offered the opposite perspective.
"Despite
Sabre's intense efforts, we have not been able to reach mutually
beneficial and commercially reasonable terms, and Turkish Airlines has
decided to discontinue distributing its content through Sabre," said
Sabre.
Turkish plans to launch its New Distribution Capability (NDC) program,
TK Connect, in October. Turkish intends to implement a surcharge for
legacy GDSs bookings and remove some low-fare content from those
systems.
Turkish's NDC content is slated to be available to
travel advisors who use the Amadeus and Travelport reservation systems
as well as other third-party aggregators, according to Turkish's
announced plans. The content will also be available via direct connect
and a Turkish Airlines booking portal.
Amadeus declined to provide
an update Wednesday. According to corporate travel newsletter The Beat,
Amadeus president of travel Decius Valmorbida said during the company's
Q2 earnings call that negotiations with Turkish for a new content
agreement were ongoing.
Travelport said its distribution agreement with Turkish Airlines remains in place.
Both Turkish and Sabre said they still hope to reach an agreement to restore the airline's flight inventory.