BCD selects Farelogix for connectivity to airlines

Implications: For over a quarter of a century, travel agencies have used the Global Distribution Systems (GDS), including Sabre, Worldspan, Galileo and Amadeus for access to airline inventory.

BCD is the world's 5th largest travel agency, and the 4th largest brick and mortar agency in the US.  They are responsible for $12 billion in global sales and have 12,000 employees.  They previously operated as World Travel BTI.  They are part of one of the largest privately held family owned companies in the world, BCD N.V., a Dutch company.

Farelogix is part of a group known as "GDS New Entrants" or GNE's for short.  They provide connectivity to all four GDS companies, a number of airlines directly and airline consolidators.  Their economics are significantly more appealing to suppliers than the GDS.


Analysis: After the recent negotiations with the GDS companies, who were recently pressured by the airlines to pass on fees to the agency community, BCD made a decision to take its future into its own hands.

They made the decision to select Farelogix as their inventory access partner.    They cited the key benefit as the access to many channels, including supplier-direct, GDS, as well as private and internet fare sources.

Farelogix is a privately held technology firm based in Miami.  Its CEO is former CEO of Amadeus North America, Jim Davidson.  The company's primary funding is from Sandler Capital in NY.

BCD now joins Amex and Carlson (#1 and #2 Corporate Travel companies in the US at $20.6b and $16.5b respectively) in having a technical solution to bypass the GDS companies.