JEDDAH, 22 December 2004 — Travel agents are complaining about having problems with Galileo, one of the world’s leading providers of electronic global distribution services (GDS), marketed in the Kingdom by Saudi Arabian Airline’s Arabi Automated Distribution Unit.
At least a dozen travel agents that Arab News talked to in the last 10 days said on many an occasion they cannot access the GDS at all, at times the response is low, and at other times the information concerning fares and prices is wrong.
One official at Saudia said it was a worldwide problem faced by all global distribution services such as Amadeus and WorldSpan. “We are working to solve the problem,” he said. However, inquiries with Amadeus and WorldSpan users revealed that they had no such problems.
Another official at Saudia said as per his knowledge there was no problem with Galileo, and agreed to make inquiries and relate the information through the airlines’ public relations department. After constant follow-ups and reminders, he did not call back.
A number of travel agents said they were contemplating leaving Galileo, which connects nearly 46,000 travel agency locations to 683 airlines, 27 car rental companies, 52,000 hotel properties, 431 tour operators and all major cruise lines throughout the world.
They said they also do not feel happy with the incentives given by Galileo. They feel that these are less than what other global distribution services offer. Incentives are given if the agents meet the target of selling segments — a car booking, an airline ticket, and a hotel reservation, each make one segment.
The agents feel that in a market situation where yield on sale of tickets is getting less and less, they have to look at other avenues to enhance their revenue.
