But no further impact expected for Flight Centre business.
Flight Centre managing director Graham Turner has just released a formal response to this morning’s High Court ruling in favour of the ACCC in the long-running competition case.
Turner said the company was pleased the saga had been resolved and respected the Court’s decision, but was disappointed it had reached this point.
“Flight Centre has sought to deliver cheaper airfares to the travelling public for more than 30 years, and is not in the business of attempting to make airfares more expensive,” he said.
“As an agent that provides considerable advice and help to the travelling public and extensive marketing for airlines, FLT asks for appropriate commissions from suppliers and also reasonable access to all deals that they release to the market…this is a logical and natural business request,” he said.
Given that Flight Centre had proactively adjusted its behaviour prior to the ACCC initiating legal action in 2012, Turner said the company doesn’t currently believe there are any further implications for the business.
However he noted the ACCC’s willingness to pursue the case “without discussion or negotiation” which was “seemingly at odds with the approach it has taken in its recent dealings with the world’s largest online travel agencies (OTAs)” – in particular the deal reached with Expedia and Booking.com which allows them to continue to stop hotels from offering cheaper prices to the public via the websites than they were making available to the OTAs.
“We expect the OTA agreement may now have to be revisited in light of the decision,” Turner concluded.
More details in tomorrow’s issue of Travel Daily.