What is a GDS

GDS stands for Global Distribution System. GDSs are owned by companies commonly called Global Distribution Companies.

Today, there are four major GDSs:

Amadeus, IATA code 1A,

Sabre, IATA code 1S,

Worldspan, IATA code 1P, and

Galileo, IATA code 1G.

Galileo also operates a GDS for only the US marketplace, called Apollo.

The Galileo, Worldspan and Apollo GDSs are owned by one company, Travelport.

The role of the GDS is to provide Travel Agents with the means to book airline products. The customers of the GDSs are Travel Agents, who book airline products, and airlines, which makes their products available for Travel Agent booking.

 The more Travel Agents connected to one GDS, the more attractive that GDS becomes for airlines as a channel to distribute their products (as long as those Travel Agents are located in markets interesting to the airlines).

 To make its product available for booking through a GDS, an airline must sign what is called a Participation Agreement, which defines the way in which the GDS and the airline's Reservations system will communicate to maintain an accurate description of the airline's products and inventory available to the GDS's Travel Agent customers.

 A Participation Agreement defines aspects such as:

Booking classes sold through GDS,

Maximum availability levels these classes will be shown with,

Method to load the GDS with the airline's schedule,

Method to load the GDS with the airline's fares,

Method by which bookings are communicated back to the airline's Reservations system, and by which the airline's Reservations system acknowledges or denies these bookings,

Type of ticketing.

 Once a Participation Agreement is in place, the GDS and airline perform a project to implement the technical infrastructure defined within the Participation Agreement.

 There are two main types of technical infrastructures which may be implemented to support the distribution of an airline's products via the GDS:

Stored-and-forward messaging, and

Interactive transactions.

 Stored-and-forward messaging is the simpler method; inventory synchronization and booking exchange relies on messages sent through what is called the Type B network. The Type B network is similar in principle to email communication; the message is first created on one end, saved, and then forwarded to the other end.