From: Kurland, Susan (OST)

Sent: Friday, March 07, 2014 5:05 PM

To: 'lavind@iata.org'

Cc: Thomson, Kathryn (OST); Workie, Blane (OST); Kiser, John (OST); Gretch, Paul (OST); Horn, Don (OST); Goldner, Bob (OST) Subject: Re: Request for meeti ng plus Resolution 787

Doug

- I received your message. As required by DOT’s rules of practice, I am placing a copy of it in the
docket of the proceeding. Susan

From : LAVIN Douglas [ mailto:lavind@iata.org ]

Sent : Friday, March 07, 2014 12:24 PM Eastern Standard Time

To : Kurland, Susan (OST)

Cc : Thomson, Kathryn (OST); Workie, Blane (OST); Kiser, John (OST); Gretch, Paul (OST) Subject : Request for meeting plus Resolution 787

Hi Susan! Hope all is well.

I am w riting to express our concern regarding DOT’s delay in issuing its Order to Show Cause on

Resolution 787. As you know, we submitted Resolution 787 for DOT approval in March 2013. After
more than 400 comments, we made a second submission that proposed som e conditions that we thought would address the concerns of those who opposed DOT approval of 787 (the majority of which
were generated by Open Allies, which represents the three GDSs and part of the travel agent community). I understand that DOT was prepa red to issue their Order at the end of January 2014. Before doing so, IATA and Open Allies filed in late January a document outlining conditions that both sides agreed would meet the needs of their respective constituents.

As a DOT alum, I recognize i t takes some time to complete the various sign offs before issuing such an
important Order. At the same time, I do not believe the IATA/Open Allies document fundamentally
changed our approach on 787 in a way that would require extensive rework of the draf t DOT Order. I would also think that the fact that the major opponent to Resolution 787 is now supporting DOT’s
approval would speed up, rather than delay, the internal approval process.

I wanted to share with your our perspective on the impact of the DOT delay on both the industry and
the Department:

 DOT’s delay serves to freeze development of NDC. Airlines, GDSs, technology providers are

hesitant to commit the resources needed to be invested now in order to enable them to
implement the st andard upon DOT approval. The standard proposes a significant change in how
airlines, aggregators and others distribute tickets that we are confident will serve the interests of the end user consumers. If airlines chose to adopt this voluntary standard, t hey will have to change 40 year old internal systems. They will hesitate to start this process if there is a risk that DOT will limit their ability to leverage the benefits of the standard

 In part because of the uncertainty of NDC, airlines and GDSs are negotiating one off deals to distribute limited types of ancillaries through the GDS network. While we welcome this NDC like
activity, they are developing their own proprietary solutions to deliver these ancillaries. In

contrast, NDC is a common “plug” that allows for all airlines to connect to all travel agents who
adopt the standard. This supports the push by the Department for more transparency in thebooking and distribution process. The sooner the DOT decision, the sooner we can have live

p ilots of the NDC standard and move toward implementation.

 The “peace agreement” between IATA and Open Allies was hard fought and remains
contentious among some industry players. The longer the delay from DOT, the better the chance that something could derail this positive development.

For all the above reasons, we would greatly appreciate DOT’s prompt publication of their Order to Show

Cause on Resolution 787.

Thanks and best regards.

Doug

Douglas E. Lavin
Vice President, Member and External Relations

North America (T) +1 (202) 628

- 9292 (F) +1 (202) 628

- 9448 (M) +1 (202) 374 4281
lavind@iata.org

International Air Transport Association

1201 F St., NW

Suite 650 Washington, DC 20004
www.iata.org

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