Air France-KLM will extend its surcharge of €13 per one-way ticket this spring to corporate bookings when they are not enabled via NDC.
As part of that process, the airline group will do away with private-channel arrangements that allowed some corporate travel agencies to avoid the surcharge on legacy GDS bookings.
The move, which the airline group confirmed to Travel Weekly, was originally reported in France and was later reported by The Beat, a Travel Weekly and PhocusWire sister publication.
"There is no €26 surcharge if you are on NDC. The surcharge will only be activated when the agency remains in the traditional GDS environment," Air France-KLM spokeswoman Helen Ames says.
Air France-KLM first implemented a GDS surcharge of €11 one-way in 2018 for leisure bookings and has since raised the fee to €13. The move was part of the airline group's strategy to push travel agencies toward NDC-supported direct-channel sales. Subsequently, Air France-KLM has entered into NDC indirect-channel deals with Amadeus and Travelport, but not with Sabre.
Ames says that leisure agencies have been gradually transferring their business with Air France-KLM to NDC channels and that currently 80% of leisure OTA volume is NDC-enabled.
She says the private-channel deals have been a way to support corporate agencies while making the transition to NDC-enabled retailing.
Though Air France-KLM does not assess the €13 surcharge for NDC-enabled Travelport and Amadeus bookings, a "small surcharge" still applies, Ames says. She declines to confirm the amount.
According to The Beat, Air-France KLM confirmed late last year that NDC-enabled transactions within Travelport have a surcharge of 1.40 euros to 3 euros. The airline group said those figures are similar to the surcharges assessed within the Amadeus GDS.
* This article originally appeared on Travel Weekly.