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Airlines and Agentic AI: Being able to play, without being played
Today's partnership announcement between Amadeus and Anthropic is an urgent call to action for airlines to take control of their distribution destiny. Airlines need offensive AND - just as importantly - defensive capabilities in the technical and contractual domain with respect to Agenti AI. In other words, airlines need to be able to play, without being played. Imagine Anthropic or an incarnation of Claude becoming "just another" GDS subscriber: Depending on the airline's di
Felix Dannegger
1 min read
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Airlines and Agentic AI: Being able to play, without being played
Today's partnership announcement between Amadeus and Anthropic is an urgent call to action for airlines to take control of their distribution destiny. Airlines need offensive AND - just as importantly - defensive capabilities in the technical and contractual domain with respect to Agenti AI. In other words, airlines need to be able to play, without being played. Imagine Anthropic or an incarnation of Claude becoming "just another" GDS subscriber: Depending on the airline's di
Felix Dannegger
5 days ago1 min read
Small can be beautiful!
Smaller airlines often believe their ability to negotiate competitive GDS distribution agreements is limited. In reality, their bargaining power is quite significant, because their BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) is usually not much worse than the negotiated deal they already have. This is because for small airlines, the relative increase in GDS booking fees when moving from a (Full) content agreement to a baseline GDS parity agreement with the likes of A
Felix Dannegger
Jul 71 min read
Air Europa and Sabre have entered into a new distribution agreement
Air Europa and Sabre have agreed on distribution terms and conditions ensuring continued Sabre access to Air Europa content from 1 July 2026, albeit with the same surcharge as will be applicable to tickets issued via Sabre’s GDS competitors Amadeus and Travelport. Earlier this year, when informing the trade about its GDS cost recovery surcharge effective 1 July 2026, the airline had said it would cease distributing via Sabre from the same date onward.
Felix Dannegger
Jun 181 min read
Will some Modern Airline Retailing (MAR) value pools ever materialize?
Airlines embarking on Modern Airline Retailing transformations are hoping to tap significant, additional revenue pools. Apart from evolving into better sellers of their own products and services, airlines are aiming to become retailers of third party products and services, such as hotels, cars and travel experiences. Airlines should ask themselves: Even if or when OOSD capability is fully in place, will travelers really be looking to airlines to become the orchestrators of t
Felix Dannegger
May 191 min read
Modern Airline Retailing (MAR) value pools: Filled to the rim or already mostly tapped?
MAR value pools: Filled to the rim or already mostly tapped? The observable herd mentality among airlines launching into five-year and longer MAR transformation programs at a time when technological standards are still evolving begs the question of the motivation behind the rush. Surely, the promise of abundant value pools just waiting to be tapped by MAR first movers and early adopters is one of the main reasons. But airlines considering whether to follow the herd, should fi
Felix Dannegger
May 122 min read
Is Modern Airline Retailing (MAR) a real possibility or a fata morgana?
Last week's CEO skirmish between Sabre and Amadeus about dominance and monopolists has shed a spotlight on MAR modularity. Airlines claim to want and need it. IT providers claim to offer it. Why then have so many high profile OOSD decisions by established airlines begun with the predictable outcome of at least anchoring their future OOSD architecture around their PSS incumbent, putting them in the pole position for additional pieces of the MAR pie? Here are some of the likel
Felix Dannegger
May 52 min read
Airlines on glacial Modern Airline Retailing (MAR) timelines are ill equipped to withstand Agent AI disruption.
Taking the development NDC into account, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) timeline for the MAR transition spans (at least) three decades. Compare that to the lightning speed and rapid fire capability iterations of Agentic AI and something will have to give. Will Agentic AI for travel wait for the MAR transition to complete? I doubt it. Questions airlines should ask themselves: What is my Agentic AI strategy? How should I evolve my distribution strategy in li
Felix Dannegger
Apr 281 min read
Fear of missing out (FOMO) is driving Modern Airline Retailing (MAR) more than conviction
When NDC became the talk of the town in airline distribution, quite a few airlines lunged head first into IT projects and procurement based not on a clear strategy and defined expectations, but more because of a fear of falling behind their competitors, or perhaps in even worse in terms of perception, their alliance and/or joint venture partners. In many cases, buyers remorse set in once business cases evaporated when confronted with reality. Most often, this failure to deliv
Felix Dannegger
Apr 211 min read
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