From September 1st, Turkish Airlines fares can no longer be booked on the Sabre GDS.
Each party blames the other for the fact that no agreement could be reached on the content.
“Despite the positive and constructive approach Turkish Airlines has shown in continuing its participation with Sabre under similar conditions as with our other GDS partners, this effort has not been reciprocated by Sabre,” Cemal Kaya, the airline’s general manager for Los Angeles and Denver, wrote in an email to Travel Advisors.
Turkish Airlines’ inventory will remain available “on other GDS platforms,” Kaya wrote.
A statement from Sabre took the opposite perspective.
“Despite Sabre’s intensive efforts, we have not been able to reach mutually beneficial and commercially reasonable terms and Turkish Airlines has decided to stop distributing its content through Sabre,” Sabre said.
Turkish plans to launch its New Distribution Capability (NDC) program TK Connect in October. Turkish intends to introduce a surcharge for bookings made through existing GDSs and remove some low-cost fares from these systems.
Turkish’s NDC content will be available to travel advisors using Amadeus and Travelport’s reservation systems and other third-party aggregators, according to Turkish’s announced plans. The content will also be available through a direct connection and a Turkish Airlines booking portal.
Amadeus declined to provide any updates on Wednesday. According to travel newsletter The Beat, Amadeus travel president Decius Valmorbida said during the second-quarter conference call that negotiations with Turkish on a new content agreement were ongoing.
Travel Weekly has also reached out to Travelport for an update on the status of its content agreement with Turkish.
Both Turkish and Sabre said they remained hopeful of reaching an agreement to restore the airline’s flight operations.
