GBTA Opposes Lufthansa Group’s Proposal to Force Channel Shift

Alexandria, VA (June 10, 2015) – Last week, the Lufthansa Group airlines announced that it plans to add a surcharge to tickets purchased anywhere other than its websites, service centers and airport ticket counters beginning on September 1, 2015.

The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) – the voice of the global business travel industry – issued the following statement in response:

We believe that this planned strategy will negatively impact corporate travel programs both directly and indirectly in the following manner:

It is a direct price increase to managed travel programs with no corresponding benefit.
It will cause fragmentation of existing distribution processes, which is unnecessarily disruptive, resulting in significant increased costs to the corporation.
It will further result in decreased price transparency if carried out by not only Lufthansa, but other airlines in the industry.

GBTA recognizes that change in the marketplace, even disruption, can lead to positive outcomes for the business traveler and the corporation, but that in this case the cost of disruption far outweighs the benefit.

This position was carefully considered by our committees and leadership after discussions with Lufthansa representatives and our industry partners.

As the voice of the business travel industry and the corporate travel buyer, GBTA strongly opposes the Lufthansa Group’s plan and calls on Lufthansa to reconsider their September deadline. We propose Lufthansa enters into continued discussions to find a constructive path forward with the buyer professionals and their corporations who ultimately bear the entire cost of global travel.

CONTACT : Colleen Lerro Gallagher, +1 703-236-1133, [email protected]

À propos de l'Association mondiale des voyages d'affaires
La Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) est la première organisation commerciale de voyages d'affaires et de réunions au monde. Son siège social est situé dans la région de Washington, DC et elle opère sur six continents. Plus de 9 000 membres de GBTA gèrent chaque année plus de $345 milliards de dépenses mondiales de voyages d'affaires et de réunions. GBTA et la Fondation GBTA offrent une éducation, des événements, des recherches, des plaidoyers et des médias de classe mondiale à un réseau mondial en pleine croissance de plus de 28 000 professionnels du voyage et 125 000 contacts actifs. Pour savoir comment les voyages d'affaires stimulent la croissance durable des entreprises, gbta.org