Qantas targets OTAs direct

QANTAS has confirmed a “review of its distribution strategies,” and is inviting online travel agents (OTAs) to submit expressions of interest in entering into a commercial agreement directly with the carrier.

The airline has written to a number of online agencies and ticketing consolidators, warning them that effective from 01 Jul 2017 it will enforce an existing policy stipulating that it “does not remunerate travel agents for revenue generated from consolidating on behalf of OTAs”.

QF head of agency partnerships, Rob Harrison, told Travel Daily, “We know some of our customers are increasingly using digital channels, including OTAs, as their preferred method of booking travel. This is why we are starting to open up commercial conversations with OTAs so that we can work with them directly”.

The carrier said working with OTAs meant it could “better support the channels that customers chose to book Qantas, and deliver value to its customers regardless of their preferred booking channel.

“It’s important that our distribution strategy, like all parts of our business, continues to deliver efficiencies and consistencies which can be passed onto our customers”.

The move is likely to impact a number of large OTAs and their existing relationships, such as Webjet and Bestjet which are both understood to be currently ticketing significant volumes via consolidators.

It’s also unclear how the change would affect OTAs which have existing franchisee relationships with agency consortia.