Computerised air ticket reservation systems

KEY POINTS

• System vendors¹ must not:
  • impose any unfair or unjustified conditions on airlines or on their own subscribers;
  • prevent an airline from using other reservation systems, including its own internet booking service and call centres;
  • reserve any specific loading or processing procedures for one or more participating carriers.
• System vendors must:
  • load and process data provided by airlines with equal care and timeliness;
  • publicly disclose the extent of a direct or indirect capital holding they have in an airline or vice versa;
  • provide a principal display for each individual transaction through its computerised reservation system;
  • clearly identify in the display any airlines that are banned from flying within the EU;
  • process personal data only for the purposes (making a reservation or issuing a ticket) for which they were given;
  • upon request from the European Commission, submit an independently audited report on their ownership structure and governance model.
• System vendors may make available marketing, booking and sales data, provided these are offered on a non-discriminatory basis to all participating carriers and do not identify the customer.
• If system vendors in a non-EU country discriminate against EU carriers, the Commission may require vendors operating in the EU to apply the same treatment to that country’s airlines.
• The Commission may impose fines not exceeding 10% of the previous year’s total turnover on companies which intentionally or negligently fail to comply with the legislation.

In 2009, the Commission adopted an explanatory note explaining how it interprets the concept of a ‘parent carrier’ which may be able to have a decisive influence on the running of the system vendor’s business.