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Fates of Worldspan's sale, GDS regs intertwined.

Article Excerpt
Eleventh-hour filings early last week by interested parties to tell the U.S. Department of Transportation what they think of its proposed global distribution system regulations illustrated the importance of the recent announcement that Worldspan's airline owners would sell the company. Not only is the fate of Worldspan bound to be shaped by DOT's final decision, but DOT will formulate rules in part based on the smallest GDS' immediate future.

DOT plans to hold a hearing for the presentation of arguments before its reply comment deadline on May 15. The agency does not expect to finish the rule-making process until well after midyear, when Worldspan predicted its acquisition by private investors from Citigroup and a Canadian pension plan to close (BTN, March 10). The current rules remain in effect until January.

Page after page of industry dialogue on the regulations rehashed clashes on a number of issues and could debunk some assumptions under which DOT was operating in last year's rulemaking proposal (BTN, Dec. 9, 2002), but a Worldspan sale could make some discussion irrelevant as it would all but end the conditions that precipitated regulation in the first place--chiefly the airline ownership of GDSs.

Noting that the GDSs still would be subject to antitrust and consumer-protection oversight, most major vendor parties supported full deregulation. They differed, however, on when it should happen. Assuming a Worldspan deal, Expedia, Sabre, United Airlines and Worldspan saw fit to chuck the regulations as soon as possible. Continental, Delta,...

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