Global Distribution System

GDS is a worldwide computerized reservation network used as a single point of acces for reserving airline seats,hotel rooms,rental cars and othertravel related items by travel agents, online reservation sites and large corporations.
GDS is a permanently up-to-date database that is accessible to its subscribers through computing terminals.
A GDS provides all kinds of tariffs and tourism services to subscribes everyday,allowing the users to make,change and cancel reservations,as well as to print tickets and avail themserves of any kind of rights,related to services and products.
The premier GDS are Amadeus,Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan owned and operated as joint ventures by major airlines,car rental firms and hotel groups. Also called automated reservation system(ARS) and computerized reservation system (CRS)


Major GDSs.

• Sabre: American Airlines, All Nippon Airways,Cathay Pacific Airways,China Airlines,Singapore Airlines. It owns Travelocity.com
• Amadeus: Air France,Iberia,Lufthansa and SAS. Serves more than 57.000 travel agency locations and more than 10.500 airline sales offices in approximately 200 markets worldwide,including 58.000 hotels and 50 car rental companies,ferry,rail,cruise,insurance and tour operators.
• Galileo: 11 major North Americam and European airlines: Aer Lingus, Air Canada,Alitalia,Austrian Airlines,British Airways,KLM Royal Dutch Airlines,Olympic Airlines,Swissair,TAP Air Portugal,United Airlines and US Airways.
• Worldspan: Delta,Northwest

Smaller or regional GDSs, including SITA's Sahara,Infiny(Japan),Axess(Japan),Tapas(Korea), Fantasia(South Pacific) and Abacus(Asia/Pacific)

The future of GDSs.

• Continue to evolve their technological experience
• Reduce utilisation costs
• Simplify the utilization process
• Enlarge the products and services range
• Establish strategic alliances with the new competitors
• Develop a more relational marketing policy with travel agencies.