How can airlines escape the Full Content trap?

Working across organisations comes first, augmented by tech

Everybody makes money in the airline business, apart from the airlines. The median return on invested capital for the aviation supply chain between 2012 and 2019 was 12.2% according to McKinsey, a consultancy.

Airlines earned a measly 5.0% over the same period, and this was considered successful by historical standards. Aircraft lessors earned 8.8%, freight forwarders 10.6% and manufacturers 13.9%. Topping the list were Global Distribution System (GDS) suppliers, earning a whopping 24.0%.

Amadeus IT Group, a large GDS operator, earned €2.3bn (£1.99bn) EBITBA on €6.1bn revenue in 2024, an impressive €108k profit per employee.

Their American competitor Sabre Corporation does not seem to be doing as well though. They earned $47.1m (£35.0m) operating income in 2023 and after taxes and all the rest lost $528 million. The third provider, Travelport, does not provide financial information.

One of the reasons that Amadeus is doing so well is that airlines are bound to their GDS supplier. They fear that without GDS not enough travel shoppers will buy tickets on their services.

This might be less prevalent than it used to be.

Third-party aggregators take airline NDC content and send it to the market together, which is one reason why Sabre is suffering.

Airlines have been encouraging passengers to book directly with them or their preferred NDC aggregator partners. Lufthansa has levied it’s Distribution Cost Charge since 2015.

Last time I checked, Lufthansa charge between €17.5 and €23 for a legacy EDIFACT booking and €8 for an NDC booking.

However GDS still maintain a certain negotiating leverage over airlines. Most notably in respect of so-called “Full Content Agreements”.

Some colleagues at an airline recently told me that they feel their Full Content Agreements are restricting their ability to innovate. They feel they are trapped and want out, but are not sure exactly how to do it.

So in this article I will be writing about how airlines can escape what you might call the full-content trap. I attempt to answer four questions:

Q1. What exactly are Full Content Agreements?

Q2. How do airlines believe they benefit from Full Content Agreements?

Q3. Why do Full Content Agreements end up costing airlines money in the medium- to long-term, or what is the Full Content trap?

Q4. If airlines want to escape the Full Content trap, how should they go about it?

I have some personal experience of exiting Full Content Agreements in practice.

Back in 2009 when I was at Qatar Airways we successfully made the case that allowing passengers to book special fares only on the airline’s website would offset the benefits that our Full Content Agreement offered us.

Today I will explain how we did it and how this approach is still relevant today.

Now read on…

Q1. What exactly are Full Content Agreements?

When an airline and a GDS agree to work together, they sign a Participating Carrier Agreement (PCA). As well as all the details about termination, limitation of liability and other things that you would expect in any Contract, the PCA covers:

1. The mechanics of how bookings and made and how tickets are issued

2. A clear understanding of exactly how the GDS will present the airline’s schedules, fares (prices and rules), inventory availability and other “content” to GDS users

3. The fees that the airlines will pay the GDS, including cost per click, booking fee, and ticketing fee.

PCA also contain motivations and incentives that inspire airlines to work with GDS as much as possible.

Under a Full Content Agreement, airlines promise that all the “content” (fares, schedules, inventory etc…) that the airline makes available through it’s own website and call centre will also be available to book through the GDS.

This does not mean that universal comprehensive content is available to every consumer and travel agent all the time. Special private fares for large customers and special deals for certain consumers can still be made available through so-called Closed User Groups.

Full Content Agreements mean that the Closed User Groups have to be able to buy their exclusive deals through the GDS.

At first glance this looks great. Consumers will be able to access everything the airline has to offer, whether they book directly through the airline or with a third-party travel agent.

Airlines get to send everything they can offer out to as many people as possible. The GDS is able to ensure it’s users that they will be able to see everything out there.

The benefits to GDS were so good that for longer than I can remember they have been offering financial incentives for airlines to maintain the Full Content Agreements. US giant Delta, who are considered savvy in things commercial, renewed theirs just under a year ago.

In return for guaranteeing Full Content GDS would agree to lower fees up-front or as a year-end rebate. GDS were always clear that signing a PCA without Full Content would lead to higher fees than with Full Content.

This meant that airline Chief Commercial Officers and Chief Financial Officers were receiving what they saw as a guaranteed cost-saving today. Why was this a problem? Read on…

Q2. How do airlines believe they benefit from Full Content Agreements?

It is not only the financial cost-saving element that makes Full Content attractive to airlines.

Full Content Agreements are widespread. So airlines can be reasonably sure that their content will be displayed in the same way to all customers.

When all airlines have Full Content in place, the GDS algorithm will be presenting content in the way the GDS feels will be of most benefit to it’s users. Airlines who offer the best product or service* can be sure that customers will see how good it is.

* the best product or service within the context of what a GDS can reasonably display, which is short flights, convenient departure times, cheaper fares and more flexible fare rules and not the on-board seating, catering, service and entertainment – although solutions like Routehappy attempt to provide “rich content” showing passengers exactly what they will get, they are not widespread.

GDS will be ensuring that an airline’s content is sent to all the GDS’s customers, including travel agents on the high-street and online, corporate travel agents, and government travellers. The airlines will be confident that their products are being made available in compliance with all relevant international standards and regulations.

This all seemed fair.

On the travel buyer side, as technology advanced, GDS kept updating the Full Content ecosystem. Sabre introduced their Mosaic platform in 2024. A study by the tech co found that 91% of travel agents used four or more booking platforms. 10% of agencies use ten or more booking systems.

Larger agencies seemed particularly prone to platform bloat – up to 79% reporting they required more booking systems over time. 77% of all Asia-Pacific agents were reporting platform bloat too, against 53% of agents in the Americas.

Mosaic includes low-cost carriers and NDC content, expanding the meaning of Full Content from the travel buyer’s perspective. Sabre’s own research reported that more than 80% of travel agents believed that a unified platform like Mosaic will reduce their travel costs. Surprise, surprise!

The official message from GDS to airlines is that providing Full Content through a GDS ensures not only that travel shoppers will be able to see it, but also that agents will find it easy to handle.

Low costs for agents plus high visibility for consumers should in principle be a good thing. Unfortunately it is not – airlines have fallen into the Full Content Trap. What is this and how can they escape? Read on…

Q3. Why do Full Content Agreements end up costing airlines money in the medium- to long-term, or what is the Full Content trap?

The Full Content Trap comes in four parts – structural, technical, behavioural and operational. All end up costing airlines money in the medium- and long-terms.

First up is structural. The GDS simply is not built to offer all kinds of travel-related products and services.