Deal puts American back on Expedia

By Dow Jones Newswires
Posted April 4 at 4:44 p.m.

AMR Corp.’s  American Airlines said it has reached an agreement with Expedia Inc. to restore its fares to the popular online travel agent after a dispute kept them off the site for months.

Shares of Expedia climbed 4.8 percent, to $23.50, after hours, while AMR shares rose 1.3 percent, to $6.35.

Terms weren’t disclosed. The companies said they had reached a memorandum of understanding that would allow them to resume doing business together immediately. Fares and schedule information for American and subsidiary American Eagle have been restored for search and ticketing on Expedia and Hotwire sites, initially through global distribution system technology.

American still hasn’t announced a resolution of a similar dispute between it and Orbitz Worldwide Inc., another of the biggest online travel agents in the U.S. An Orbitz spokesperson wasn’t immediately available for comment.

AMR management had gone on the record in January as saying American was committed to a wholesale shake-up of its distribution strategy by requiring all external sellers to access its fares and schedules through a direct electronic link rather than through the global distribution systems, or GDS, such as Amadeus and Sabre, which still dominate the airline ticket market, especially for corporate travel.

GDS operations were set up by airlines but have since been sold on to independent owners.

Expedia dropped tickets for American’s flights from its listings on Jan. 1; American had pulled listings from Orbitz Dec. 21.

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2 comments:

  1. jason April 5 at 11:23 a.m.

    so obviously AA sales must have dropped enough for them to fall on their sword.

  2. Chris April 5 at 3:51 pm

    or Expedia’s sales dropped enough for them to fall on their sword.