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Finally after considerable speculation, British Airways and Iberia have written to the travel agents to indicate they will levy a surcharge on bookings made via the GDS. The surcharge will incentivise travellers to book with those travel agents that use direct connection technology over a GDS or to move to the airlines own websites. British Airways will also provide an agent portal for bookings for those that do not have direct connect technology. This move has been anticipated for some time and is not a surprise.

British Airways and Iberia will implement a $10 surcharge per "fare component" on bookings through the GDS, beginning Nov. 1.

The carriers, both owned by International Airline Group (IAG), announced the policy in a letter to U.K. travel agents.

IAG said it would implement the fee to make up for the extra costs of merchandising through the GDSs. BA and Iberia emphasized that over the last few years they have invested substantially in IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC), the XML-based standard that lays the groundwork for airlines to sell all of their products, including ancillaries, through travel agencies.

“Our distribution strategy is focused on providing an enhanced range of booking options to our partners,” the carriers said.

They defined a fare component as, “a portion of a journey or itinerary between two consecutive fare break points.” In most cases, BA and Iberia said, a fare component is equivalent to an origin and destination journey.

Agents who wish to book BA and Iberia tickets without the surcharge can use direct channels, such as the airline websites and call centers. They can also use NDC direct connections, NDC connections via ticket aggregators and self-booking tools with a direct connect to BA or Iberia.

A new IAG booking portal will be available shortly.

BA and Iberia follow Lufthansa, which began charging an $18 GDS surcharge in September 2015.

Travel agents in the U.S. and Europe objected strongly to that move, fearing that it could be a harbinger to the disruption of the longstanding industry business model.

Source: http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/British-Airways-and-Iberia-adopting-GDS-booking-surcharge