International organizations support BTC’s letter to EU authorities regarding IAG surcharge

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Organizations from thirteen countries announce full support of the Business Travel Coalition’s letter to EU authorities regarding the International Airlines Group’s (IAG) recently announced surcharge:

27 JUNE 2017

David Currie
Chairman
UK Competition and Markets Authority
Victoria House, 37 Southampton Row,
London WC1B 4AD, UK

Dame Deirdre Hutton
Chairman
UK Civil Aviation Authority
45-59 Kingsway
London WC2B 6TE

Margrethe Vestager
European Commissioner for Competition
European Commission
Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200
1049 Brussels

José María Marín Quemada
President
National Authority for Markets and Competition C/ Alcalá 47
28014 Madrid – Spain

Dear Chairman Currie, Chairman Hutton, Commissioner Vestager and President Marín Quemada,

We the undersigned organizations from thirteen countries write in full support of the Business Travel Coalition’s letter to you of 31 May 2017 regarding the International Airlines Group’s (IAG) recently announced surcharge of £16 per a typical return ticket not purchased from its various websites, service centers or airport ticket counters, effective 1 November 2017.

We reach out to you from many countries. As participants in the managed-travel segment of the industry it matters not where we are located in the world. We may or may not have clients or employees who travel on IAG’s British Airways or Iberia within Europe, or across the globe. What is at stake is the long-term impact of this surcharge development on the competitive structure of the global travel industry.

The issue of strategic concern is if a few global airline groups leverage a REGAINED control over airline distribution then we would no doubt be right back to the hard-to-detect but widespread and deeply harmful competitive abuses present when major airlines owned and controlled the global distribution systems.

Costs, transparency and new airline entry would all be negatively impacted vis-à-vis consumers. If airlines today controlled distribution, i.e., the competitive choices and prices consumers see, then one can only fathom how, for example, EU and US airline alliance partners would be (1) blocking Gulf carriers’ market entry, (2) stymying Norwegian Air Shuttle’s pro-consumer growth or (3) frustrating countless other new airlines’ entry plans.

The Tragedy Of The Travel Commons

The travel industry and its regulators have worked for decades to greatly increase transparency for consumers with respect to airline product availability and pricing, i.e. complete and accurate information. That transparency is the precious “shared resource” of a global “commons” that fuels the growth of the travel and tourism industry. Its depletion would render this resource useless in powering industry growth and consumer welfare.

The travel industry is highly interdependent and exceedingly sensitive to the widespread impact one group of market participants can have, acting for short-term gain without regard to the legitimate interests of other stakeholders, and according only to their self-interest – in this instance by reducing air travel product and pricing transparency.

IAG’s proposed surcharge may seem rational at the firm level; however, when adopted by all the major airline groups at the industry level, in a follow-the-leader style – it is utterly harmful to the entire travel community. A massive reduction in transparency would deplete the very resource that drives growth in global travel and tourism. This is not in the long-term interest of IAG, other airlines, TMCs, travel buyers, airports, hotels, consumers or any of the many other participants in the travel ecosystem.

We trust that upon investigation that you will share our concerns and urge IAG to defer its surcharge implementation until such time as you are assured that IAG’s plans are in accordance with all relevant competition and transport sector laws, statutes and principles.

As the Business Travel Coalition offered in its recent letter to you, if it would be useful to you, a representative group of industry participants, including from the Air Channel Choice coalition, would be pleased to meet with your staffs to share why we are deeply concerned about this far-reaching industry development.

Sincerely,

Hickory Global Partners
Travel & Transport
The Travel Team
ATPI (UK)
ITP-International Travel Partnership (UK) Anthony Veder Travel B.V. (Netherlands) Petroleum Geo-Services (Norway) Travel Harbour (UK) UNIGLOBE Travel (Holland) World Travel, Inc.
Colwick Travel
DHL
Business Travel Coalition
Dubai Travel & Tour Agents Group (UAE)
eGlobalfares
Endress+Hauser Management AG (Switzerland)
Anglo California Travel Service Inc.
Ace Travel Management (UK)
Irish Travel Agents Association (Ireland) AVIA Marketing Consultants, Inc. (Canada) e-Business Travel B.V. (Netherlands) VISA Tours & Travel (P) Ltd. (India) San Francisco International Airport Global Travel (Norway) Ian Dickson Travel (Scotland) Mangaard Travel Group A/S (Denmark) UCB (Belgium) International Travel Partnership (UK) Hidden Treasure Tours Matrix Travel Management (UK) Maritime Travel Service B.V. (Netherlands) Cresta World Travel (UK) CH2M UNIGLOBE Travel Partners Cannon Design Wells Fargo & Company Corniche Group Teplis Travel LXR Travel LLC Hess Travel Options Travel Hidden Treasure Tours S.R. Travel Service Berger Travel Agency, Inc.
Geraci Travel
GlobalPoint Travel Solutions
Travel One, Inc.
MH-Global Communications Network
Chambers Travel
Kilauea Travel Group, Inc.
Sun Travel
Agencias Soler
Travel Leaders Indianapolis
Britt’s Auto Sales
Contract TravelMakino
Travel Landing USA
J.V.Travels Pvt Ltd (India)
Travel Computer Sys
Tems, Inc.
Changing Planes

AIR CHANNEL CHOICE COALITION FOUNDING MEMBERS

Air Passengers Association of India (India)
Business Travel Coalition
Travelers United
asr e.V. (alliance of independent travel companies) (Germany) IATA Agents Association of India (India) Dubai Travel & Tour Agents Group (United Arab Emirates) African Development Bank (Côte d’Ivoire) UNIGLOBE Travel International (Canada) Hickory Global Partners, LCC (U.S.)
Alive Travel (Portugal)
Hotelplan Suisse MTCH AG (Switzerland)
Tier One Travel, Inc. (Canada)
BookIt.com
World Travel, Inc.
Travel and Transport, Inc.
The Travel Team, Inc.
Roberta’s Travel Solutions (Trinidad and Tobago)
Atlantis Air Service (Czech Republic)
Beiersdorf AG (Germany)
ITP International Travel Partnership (United Kingdom)
The Travel Company Edinburgh (Scotland)
Wexas Travel Management (United Kingdom)
AUSTIN INTERNATIONAL TRAVELS (India)
Matrix Travel Management (United Kingdom) ANAVCO (DR Congo) Advanced Travel Partners – ATPI (United Kingdom) Mocenigo Tours (Italy) Bouda Ltd (United Kingdom) Cresta World Travel (United Kingdom) Eton Travel Ltd (United Kingdom) Kiwi Travel Ltd (United Kingdom)
Corporate Travel Partners Limited (United Kingdom)
Makino, Inc.
Wells Fargo & Company
Lumbermens Merchandising Corp.
Bridgewater State University
TravelStore Inc.
Trevenue
Travel One, Inc.
Tower Travel Management
Cruise Center USA
Flextronics International Management Services, Ltd.
A & I Travel Management, Inc.
Global Travel Identity Solutions LLC
Anthony Travel, Inc.
MacNair Travel Management
GlobalPoint Travel Solutions
Adelman Travel
The Joselyn Consulting Group
Geraci Travel
Contract Travel
Berger Travel Agency, Inc.
WorldTravelService
Travel Experts, Inc.
Gant Travel
Antietam Travel Service, Inc.
Premiere Travel
Travel Management Partners, Inc.
LXR Travel LLC
J Walker Service Group LLC
Discount Travel Brokerage Services, Inc.
Bursch Travel
EL SOL TRAVEL INC
Me and delCano Travel Consultants
Accent / Universal Travel
Wilcox World Travel and Tours
Trimble Navigation Ltd
Flextronics International Management Services, Ltd.
Turon Travel, Inc.
Pro Sky Group
FBI TRAVEL
Tier One Travel Inc
Nomad Travels
Alive Travel

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Chief Assignment Editor

Chief Assignment editor is Oleg Siziakov

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