ABOUT GDS

A global distribution system (GDS) is a

network operated by a company that
enables automated transactions between
travel service providers (mainly airlines,
hotels and car rental companies) and travel
agencies. Travel agencies traditionally
relied on GDS for services, products & rates in order to provision travel-related services to the
end consumers. A GDS can link services, rates and bookings consolidating products and services
across all three travel sectors: i.e., airline reservations, hotel reservations, car rentals.

GDS is different from a computer reservations system, which is a reservation system used by the
service providers (also known as vendors). Primary customers of GDS are travel agents (both
online and office-based) to make reservation on various reservation systems run by the vendors.
GDS holds no inventory; the inventory is held on the vendor's reservation system itself. A GDS
system will have real-time link to the vendor's database. For example, when a travel agency
requests a reservation on the service of a particular airline company, the GDS system routes the
request to the appropriate airline's computer reservations system. This enables a travel agent with
a connection to a single GDS to choose and book various flights, hotels, activities and associated
services on all the vendors operating in the same route who are part of that GDS network.

Four Main Systems of GDS

Galileo is a CRS (Or GDS) owned by travel port business. Galileo now is not only used to book
airline reservation but also train travel, cruises, car rental, and hotel rooms.

Worldspan Is a part of Travel Port Business. It offers worldwide electronic distribution of travel
information, Internet products and connectivity, and e-commerce capabilities for travel agencies,
travel service providers and corporations.

SABRE is GDS owned by sabre holding, it have more than 400 airlines, 100,000 hotels, 50 rails
and 14 cruise lines.
AMADEUS is a CRS (or global distribution system, since it sell tickets for multiple airline)
owned by Amadeus it group. In addition to airline it is also used to book train travel, cruises, car
rental and hotel rooms.

EVOLUTION OF MAJOR GDS

BENEFITS OF GDS
The Use of Global distribution system shows a rise across corporate and leisure travelers.

GDS is highly effective in alluring the international travelers. This is the reason why
using of GDS among the travel agents is growing exponentially every year.

OTAs have greatly improved the travel shopping experience and convenience for
consumers and have increased pricing transparency.

GDSs enable the retail travel agency and OTA business models.

The GDSs enable the travel agents to make their travel services available to consumers
globally where they might not otherwise be able to achieve efficient worldwide market
penetration through direct marketing efforts.

Booking through Global distribution system is most preferable for corporate travel
agents as a suitable reservation process for holidays, air, hotel and rental cars.

Travel agents can get global platform for their business with strong market penetration.

Global distribution system is the base to enter into corporate clients across the world.

GDS is the ability to update the status of inventory in real time. Due to its real-time
status update capability managers can view rates change and can easily alter price points
or make special offers. Agents can view all the changes instantly and will be able to
suggest the new updates and offers to clients without any interruption to make the deal..

Its a wise decision to invest in a GDS. The system places your holiday booking services
and inventories in front of huge clients without affecting your marketing budget.

The unique selling point of GDS is that it Can provide best rates to your guests, which
no other systems can provide. Your gusts can find packages that include a hotel stay, air
travel and car rental.
GALILEO

Galileo is a computer reservations system (CRS) owned by Travelport. As of 2002, it had

a 26.4% share of worldwide CRS airline bookings.

In addition to airline reservations, the Galileo CRS is also used to

book train travel, cruises, car rental, and hotel rooms.

The Galileo system was moved from Denver, Colorado, to the Worldspan datacenter in Atlanta,
Georgia, on September 28, 2008, following the 2007 merger of Travelport and Worldspan
(although they now share the same datacenter, they continue to be run as separate systems).

Galileo is subject to the Capps II and its successor Secure Flight program for the selection of
passengers with a risk profile.

Galileo is a member of the International Air Transport Association, of the OpenTravel

Alliance and of SITA.

AMADEUS

Amadeus is a computer reservations system (or global distribution system, since it sells
tickets for multiple airlines) owned by the Amadeus IT Group with headquarters
in Madrid, Spain. The central database is located at Erding, Germany. The major development
centers are located in Bangalore (India), Sophia Antipolis (France) and Boston (United States).
In addition to airlines, the CRS is also used to
book train travel, cruises, car rental, ferry reservations, and hotel rooms. Amadeus also provides
New Generation departure control systems to airlines.[1] Amadeus IT Group is a transaction
processor for the global travel and tourism industry. The company is structured around two key
related areas - its global distribution system and its IT Solutions business area.

Amadeus is a member of IATA, OTA and SITA. Its IATA airline designator code is 1A.
COMPARISION BETWEEN GALILEO AND AMADEUS

1. Amadeus has single screen but galileo has 4 screen options.

2. Amadeus shows all available class of service on first entry but Galileo does not. We need to
make additional entry to get all available class of service on Galileo.

3. Galileo shows different availability lines for connection flight but Aamadeus has single
availability line even for connection flights.

4. Galileo neutral availability entry starts with A but in Amadeus it starts with AN.

5. Galileo name entry starts with N. but in Amadeus it starts with NM1.

6. Globally Galileo has 22.4 percent share.

7. Amadeus it is possible to query the schedules via a single command based on option
commands, the same operation is more complex in Galileo.

8. Amadeus developed measures allowing agents to combine all the possible Airline offers into
one place. This means it is possible to find the best combination via one access.

9. Amadeus Passenger seating is a process which can be done via the cryptic command or a more
straightforward graphical interface, which is usually preferred not just by the passenger, but the
agent as well.

10. GDS Amadeus is simpler compared to GDS Galileo for flight class display.

11. GDS Amadeus is logical and it is not necessary to memorize the entries as opposed to
Galileo. The entries used by Galileo are harder to memorize.

12. The refund is possible to be managed in one table in Amadeus vs. in Galileo it requires
multiple steps.
CONCLUSION DRAWN FROM ABOVE COMPARISION

GDS Amadeus GDS Galileo

Reservation-class Strong side

display
Weak side

Basic entries Strong side

Weak side

Ticket re-issue Strong side

Weak side

Ticket re issue for Strong side

verification
Weak side

GDS Amadeus is quite popular among the colleagues working with airlines mainly due to
its clarity, simplicity, interaction speed and up-to-date data. The graphical abilities are also
extensively used mainly for ticket re-issue, managing refunds.