BEFORE THE 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 

_____________________________________ 

 ) 

Agreement Adopted by the Passenger ) 

Services Conference of the International ) Docket DOT-OST-2013-0048 

Air Transport Association ) 

_____________________________________ ) 

COMMENTS OF US AIRWAYS, INC. 

Communication with respect to this document should be sent to: 

Howard Kass 

Vice President, Legal and Government Affairs 

Benjamin T. Slocum 

Director, Legal and Government Affairs 

1401 H Street NW, Suite 1075 

Washington, DC 20005 

(202) 326-5162 (phone) 

(202) 898-2039 (fax) 

howard.kass@usairways.com 

benjamin.slocum@usairways.com 

May 1, 2013 
1 

BEFORE THE 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 

_____________________________________ 

 ) 

Agreement Adopted by the Passenger ) 

Services Conference of the International ) Docket DOT-OST-2013-0048 

Air Transport Association ) 

_____________________________________ ) 

COMMENTS OF US AIRWAYS, INC. 

 US Airways, Inc. (“US Airways”) fully supports IATA’s request that DOT approve 

IATA Resolution 787. As set forth in an Application for Approval dated March 11, 2013, 

IATA requests that DOT approve Resolution 787 insofar as it describes a means to 

modernize distribution communications technology with a new Extensible Markup 

Language (XML) data exchange standard.1 We urge DOT to do so. 

 No industry is better suited to sell its products via the internet than the airline 

industry. The product offered is a service between two points and, beyond the base 

airfare, it is solely up to the passenger how many additional products and services the 

customer wants to buy. In short, consumers have responded positively to these new 

purchase opportunities by seeking greater control over their travel experiences and 

airlines have responded. At US Airways, we have experienced a sizable increase in 

recent years of bookings made online at usairways.com because we are able to employ 

XML, which is a richer programing language allowing the US Airways website to offer 

customized offers and products, within the contractual limitations of our distribution 

 

1 Application for Approval of an Agreement (Resolution 787) by the International Air Transport 

Association. Docket OST-2013-0048. Page 2.
2 

contracts, to our customers. These gains have come from online travel agencies 

(OTAs), who serve primarily leisure customers. These customers clearly value having 

access to all products and services, yet OTAs have been unwilling or unable (via direct 

connect or the Global Distribution Systems (GDSs)) to offer such content to customers. 

 IATA’s efforts to encourage widespread adoption of a modern XML data 

exchange standard would benefit travelers because no matter how a passenger 

purchased a ticket, the carrier’s complete set of products and services would be 

accessible through all channels.2

 Detractors of this will paint a horrifying story of doom 

and gloom that will befall consumers should this happen. But the reality is just the 

opposite. Retailers, service-providers, and just about every other organization uses 

XML to permit consumers to have a better shopping experience on the web---no matter 

what web outlet, portal, app, mobile site, etc., is used to purchase the product. But the 

airline industry is lagging woefully behind. 

 Adopting Resolution 787 would allow airline travel to be bought and sold more 

like other e-commerce products in the 21st century. In turn, consumers would have a 

greater ability to receive and compare airlines’ full product offerings, choosing to receive 

specifically tailored services or continue as an anonymous shopper. An XML standard 

also should foster investment, innovation, and efficiency in the marketplace by providing 

certainty around systems and capabilities. Importantly, an XML standard also could 

 

2 Opponents of IATA Resolution 787 had previously told DOT that the provision of information regarding 

carriers’ complete product and service offerings to the indirect channel was of primary importance, as it 

would “support the restoration of comparison-shopping for air travelers.” See, e.g., June 28, 2012- BTC 

Presentation to U.S. DOT ACAC, available at http://www.businesstravelcoalition.com/pressroom/2012/june-28---btc-presentation.html.
3 

help foster innovation by, and competition with, GDSs, which have significant market 

power over airlines like US Airways and continue to rely on antiquated technology. 

 With all of these benefits, one can rightly ask why opponents of Resolution 787, 

such as the GDSs, are opposing an XML technology standard so strenuously. 

Ironically, GDSs have touted many of the same pro-consumer benefits underlying 

Resolution 787 to try to advance their interests in other rulemakings that perversely 

would enhance further their market power and commercial interests to the detriment of 

consumers and airlines.3

 The GDSs previously argued that a mandate which obligates 

airlines to provide access to content is the only way to ensure full transparency to 

consumers. Yet Travelocity, a GDS owned OTA, has access to US Airways ancillary 

content (ChoiceSeats) but has yet to even prioritize the development necessary to 

consume and display this content to consumers. If it, and its parent GDS (Sabre), were 

truly interested in consumer transparency, Travelocity would have been the first OTA to 

distribute US Airways ChoiceSeats.4

 Given the rhetoric and inconsistency of positions, one has to wonder whether 

consumers interests are really at the heart of the issue for these opponents or whether 

 

3 As noted in a joint response filed by US Airways and several airlines to the Reply Comments of 

Interactive Travel Service Association In the Matter of Enhancing Airline Passenger Protections, Docket 

OST-2010-0140 at 3, ITSA, “[m]asquerading as a consumer advocate...argues that customers who use 

travel agents deserve the ‘the same robust and bookable fee information as is provided on airline 

websites.’” Similarly, BTC previously represented that a “significant consumer issue” existed because 

carriers’ complete product and service offerings were not available in the indirect channel, preventing 

“apples-to-apples comparisons of air travel options.” Comments of BTC In the Matter of Enhancing 

Airline Passenger Protections, Docket OST-2010-0140 at 2,4. Resolution 787, which is now opposed by 

both BTC and the GDSs, would enable the airline industry to implement the very capability that these 

parties were previously championing as pro-consumer.

4 The lack of such functionality has significantly reduced the total US Airways revenue booked through 

Travelocity over the past 3 years.
4 

their positions are informed more by commercial strategy and a desire not to have to 

compete on the merits and innovate to provide 21st century services and choices. 

 We hope DOT sees through the smoke and rhetoric and approves Resolution 

787 so that travelers and the greater airline industry can benefit from modernized 

technology standards and the capabilities and innovation they would provide. 

 THE NEED FOR XML STANDARDS 

 The existing data exchange standards currently managed by IATA for the airline 

industry have remained largely unchanged for decades. Since the genesis of the 

existing airline industry data exchange standards in the 1960s, the advent and growth of 

the Internet has produced XML, a simpler, more flexible, and more cost effective data 

format. While XML has become widely used, and is considered the standard for 

describing and transmitting data over the Internet, it has not replaced the older data 

exchange standards that continue to be employed by the GDSs. 

 The adoption of a modern XML data exchange standard as envisioned in 

Resolution 787 will enable an airline, if they so choose, to present more information 

regarding on-board amenities, ancillary services, and customized offerings to customers 

via indirect channels. Technology based on standards proposed in Resolution 787, 

such as the a New Distribution Capability, will essentially bridge the current information 

gap that exists for customers between the modern direct distribution channels and the 

indirect channels that rely on antiquated protocols. Resolution 787 thus represents a 

path toward providing access through the indirect channel to the same types of 
5 

information currently available via the direct channel could increase customers’ ability to 

compare products and prices across airlines. 

 It is worthwhile to note that, ironically, the benefits of this kind of comparison 

shopping is being touted by opponents to Resolution 787 and NDC (namely the GDSs) 

to attempt to get DOT to propose other rulemakings. Those other rulemakings, 

perversely, could enhance the GDSs market power further to the detriment of airlines 

and consumers. In our comments in these other rulemakings, we questioned whether 

the GDSs were using these kind of arguments selectively to try to promote a rulemaking 

that would further lock-in their commercial interests. There is now more evidence that 

may be the case. The GDSs’ opposition to Resolution 787 and the promise it holds for 

consumers would seem to demonstrate that the purported pro-consumer justifications 

for the GDSs positions in other rulemakings are not of primary importance.5

 In addition to improving transparency by allowing customers to more readily 

engage in comparison shopping across airlines in the indirect channel, the proposed 

XML standard also would provide airlines, if they so choose, with the capability to 

provide personalized offers to customers in the indirect channel. The current protocols 

managed by IATA for the airline industry display only a few characteristics of an airline’s 

offer, schedule and base airfare price. Since the implementation of those protocols, 

 

5 Sabre has previously declared that “SABRE’s primary focus was on the travel consumer,” and that “with 

each booking option” consumers want to see information regarding carriers’ complete product and service 

offerings. Record of the Second Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Aviation Consumer Protection, 

August 7, 2012. DOT-OST-2012-0087-0106. However, the GDSs have a long history of engaging in 

anti-consumer activities when they believe that no one is looking, such as their undisclosed biasing of 

their displays. See February 1, 2011, DOT letter to several global distribution systems and their 

association with the subject line Re: Display bias, available at 

http://www.dot.gov/sites/dot.dev/files/docs/OTAGDSDisplayBiasWarning.pdf.
6 

airlines have added on-board amenities and ancillary services that allow for the 

increased customization of the airline travel experience. The proposed XML standard 

would allow airlines more easily to assist customers in the indirect channel with finding 

amenities and services that those customers are most likely to find desirable. 

 Allowing airline customers the opportunity to provide information during the 

shopping process to facilitate more customized offers would facilitate the adoption of 

practices already widely-employed by leading e-commerce and brick-and-mortar 

retailers. Leading e-commerce retailers have, through trial and error, become skilled at 

predicting what products are likely to be most desirable to their individual customers. 

By observing customer purchasing habits and allowing customers to disclose additional 

information via account registrations, these retailers regularly present personalized 

product offers to their customers. Consumers value the ability of these retailers to 

provide customized offers and regularly choose to disclose information to facilitate the 

provision of personalized offers that are likely to be relevant to them. Consumers 

should have the option of a similarly desirable shopping experience when shopping for 

airline services. 

 Because the proposed XML standard could enable the aggregation of airline 

product information by indirect distribution channels, it may also expedite the efforts of 

developers to access airline data and build applications allowing consumers to search 

for a suite of services they wish to purchase from an airline and compare airline offers. 

This should spur continued innovation and investment in the marketplace. 
7 

 US Airways already is using XML internally. The adoption of an XML data 

exchange standard would facilitate our ability to disseminate information regarding 

product offerings to others. Facilitating the transfer of data in a format that industry 

participants are already using would allow for a faster, simpler, and more cost effective 

way to disseminate information regarding airlines’ full product offerings. For those 

industry participants that do not wish to modernize their distribution communications 

technology at this time, IATA has indicated that they will continue to support the existing 

data exchange standards as long as they remain germane to the airline industry. 

THE GDS MONOPOLIES’ SELF-SERVING 

OPPOSITION TO MODERNIZATION 

 DOT and DOJ have long recognized that the GDSs are monopolies.6

 As the 

Department is aware, there is also an open DOJ investigation into whether the GDSs 

are abusing their monopoly power in violation of the antitrust laws. Moreover, US 

Airways has filed a lawsuit against the Sabre GDS for violations of the antitrust laws. It 

has been reported that American Airlines recently settled an antitrust lawsuit against 

Sabre for $ 280 million, in addition to recently settling its antitrust litigation with 

Travelport.7

 One of the traditional harms associated with monopolies is relatively lower quality 

products. The GDS monopolies have achieved a relatively lower quality product, in 

 

6 See, e.g., Computer Reservation System Regulations, 69 Fed. Reg. 976, 990 (Jan. 4, 2004); 

Comments of the Department of Justice to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Computer Reservation 

System Regulations 2 (Sept. 19, 1996).

7 Kevin May, Sabre, American Airlines, and a $280 million hand-shake, Tnooz (Jan. 18, 2013) , 

http://www.tnooz.com/2013/01/18/news/sabre-american-airlines-and-a-280-million-hand-shake/ 
8 

part, through their failure to adopt modern XML standards despite its widespread 

internal use at many of the GDSs’ airline clients and elsewhere throughout the industry. 

 Were the DOT to fail to approve Resolution 787, it would further perpetuate one 

of the harms associated with the GDS monopolies. On the other hand, the adoption of 

a modern XML data exchange standard as envisioned in Resolution 787 could help to 

spur much-needed competition to the GDS monopolies. Such competition would 

undoubtedly benefit consumers. We would submit that the possibility of competition, 

however, may be a reason why the GDS industry groups are lobbying so vociferously 

against the modernization envisioned in Resolution 787. 

CHOICE SEATS

 The three major GDSs’ failure to distribute its ChoiceSeats product best 

illustrates the apathy and disinterest of the GDS channel toward new airline products 

and services, even those sought after by the traveling public. ChoiceSeats gives 

passengers the option of paying to reserve more favorable seating on a US Airways 

flight. Unlike competitor airline offerings, ChoiceSeats prices carefully calibrate supply 

with demand and are thus not determined solely by the duration of a flight. In August 

2008, US Airways previewed its plans for rolling out ChoiceSeats outside the 24-hour 

check-in window to the GDSs. US Airways encouraged the GDSs at that time to begin 

adapting their systems so that travelers booking through travel agents could purchase 

ChoiceSeats just as customers can at usairways.com. 
9 

 It didn't happen. Each of the GDSs pushed back. Citing the uniqueness of US 

Airways' product, the GDSs refused to modify their software and hardware unless and 

until airlines settled on a single homogenized premium seating product. Unwilling to 

dumb-down ChoiceSeats, US Airways went forward with development and deployment 

over its own reservations channels, ultimately introducing state-of-the-art service-based 

technology in July 2010, less than 24 months after development started. 

 Rather than jumping on the bandwagon, the GDSs tried to squelch US Airways' 

offering by claiming that US Airways had somehow violated its contractual full-content 

obligations by making ChoiceSeats available on the direct channel when it couldn't be 

deployed on the indirect channel. The GDSs ultimately abandoned that position, but the 

dominant GDS insisted that ChoiceSeats be simplified so that it could be pushed out 

using the same decades-old technology used for delivering fares to the GDSs - even 

though this would have seriously eroded the utility of a pricing mechanism designed to 

more carefully match supply with demand. 

 Not until March 2011, two and half years after US Airways introduced it to the 

product, did Sabre ultimately agree to make the necessary technology investments to 

distribute ChoiceSeats as US Airways had intended. Sabre then took eighteen months 

to develop a service, deployed in November 2012, that was of limited utility to a majority 

of Sabre customers. Limited adoption among key travel agencies, including Sabreowned Travelocity, has been commonplace, and the resulting lack of access has 

harmed consumers. 
10 

 In most industries, distributors turn cartwheels to satisfy the suppliers on whom 

they depend. In the ticket distribution marketplace, the airlines' dependency on 

members of the GDS oligopoly enables the GDSs to conduct business as they see fit, 

unconcerned about satisfying those who supply them or the travelers who ultimately 

consume what they distribute. US Airways’ four year travail to get these essential 

distributers to offer ChoiceSeats to the traveling public speaks volumes for the need to 

encourage competitive offerings in the indirect channel, and providing a standardized 

XML-based data exchange as a conduit is a vital first step. 
11 

CONCLUSION 

 The creation of a new, modern, XML data exchange standard to supplement the 

older data exchange standards already managed by IATA will provide the industry with 

a framework to modernize its distribution communications technology. Creating 

standards regarding this optional format will benefit the industry in the same way that 

past standardization efforts have led to greater efficiencies and increased competition. 

As such, US Airways fully supports IATA’s request that DOT approve IATA Resolution 

787. 

Respectfully submitted, 

 _____________________________ 

Howard Kass 

Vice President, Legal and Government Affairs 

Benjamin T. Slocum 

Director, Legal and Government Affairs 

US Airways, Inc. 

1401 H Street, NW, Suite 1075 

Washington, DC 20005 

(202) 326-5153 

howard.kass@usairways.com 

benjamin.slocum@usairways.com 

DATED: May 1, 2013