旅遊生意:中間商難以出局大綱

AIRLINES are wonderful generators of profit-for everyone except themselves. Even in good times their margins are as thin as a boarding pass, and in recent years they have more often lost money (see chart). Averaged over the past four decades, the net profit margin of the world's airlines, taken together, has been a measly 0.1%. By contrast, other bits of the travel business that depend on the airlines-such as aircraft-makers, travel agents, airports, caterers and maintenance firms-have done very nicely.
航空公司的生意帶來大量的利潤，但自己卻所賺無幾。即使在經濟繁榮的時期，他們的利潤空間也少得可憐。近幾年來，航空公司常常虧本（見圖表）。過去的四十年中，把全球航空公司算在一起，平均的總淨利潤率只有極其微薄的0.1％。相比之下，其他依賴航空公司生存的旅遊業務卻表現突出，如飛機制造商，旅行社，機場，餐飲業和負責維修的公司等。

Some of the tastiest margins in the travel business are enjoyed by the "global distribution systems" (GDSs), a fancy name for computerised-reservations services. These were originally created by several of the largest airlines to distribute their flights through travel agencies but have since become independent firms. Most flights booked through a physical or online travel agent go through a GDS, which charges the airline a fee of about $12 per round trip, passing a few dollars of that to the travel agent. According to Take Travel Forward, an airlines' lobby group, the world's carriers pay $7 billion in GDS fees a year-more than double their expected net profits this year of $3 billion.
旅遊生意裏最豐厚的利潤被"全球分銷系統"（簡稱GDS）所獨享。全球分銷系統是電腦預定服務，它原本由幾家大型航空公司組建以通過旅行社來銷售班機票務，但現已成爲獨立的公司。大多數的航班是由實體或網上旅行社通過全球分銷系統所預定，一次往返行程要收取航空公司12美元的費用，其中要分幾美元給旅行社。據航空公司的遊說團體"Take Travel Forward"表示，全球的航空公司每年要付70億美元給GDS, 這是他們期待今年達到30億美元純利潤的一倍多。

The airlines' chronic unprofitability is partly the result of a wave of competition-especially from new low-cost carriers-unleashed by the steady deregulation of aviation since the 1970s. But it is also due to two moves by the airlines, from the 1990s onwards, that in retrospect were strategic errors. One was to stop paying direct commissions to travel agents. The other was to set the reservation systems free to become (as the airlines see it) profit-gobbling monsters that devour their parents.
長期以來，航空公司盈利少的部分原因是自20世紀70年代起取消航空規範管理所競爭的結果，尤其是來自新成立的低成本航空公司的壓力。但從20世紀90年代起，航空公司自己的兩大戰略錯誤也惡化了這一局面。其一是停止直接支付佣金給旅行社，其二使預訂系統免費（如航空公司認爲的）使其成爲攫取利潤的怪獸，正要吞噬它的衣食父母。

At the dawn of the internet age, airlines assumed that the middlemen who came between them and their passengers were headed for extinction. Travellers would eventually buy tickets either from the airlines' own websites or from price-comparison engines which hooked up directly to the airlines' computers over the web. So why pay commissions to agents? And why continue to own reservation systems, especially since regulators had stopped them from fiddling with travel agents' GDS screens to place their own flights at the top? So Lufthansa, Air France and Iberia sold most of their shares in Amadeus (the largest GDS); American Airlines sold Sabre; British Airways and KLM sold out of Galileo; and so on.
在互聯網時代之初，航空公司認爲他們和乘客之間的中間商即將出局。旅客們會從航空公司自己的網站上或從和航空公司計算機直接相連的價格比較引擎上直接購票。那麼，爲什麼還要支付給代理商佣金呢？爲什麼還要繼續擁有自己的預訂系統，特別是由於監管機構已經禁止他們與旅行社協議將自家的航班放在GDS屏幕的最上方。因此，漢莎航空、法航和伊比利亞出售其擁有的艾瑪迪斯（全球最大的分銷系統）的股份；美國航空公司出售Sabre，英國航空公司和荷蘭皇家航空出售Galileo等等。

However, the loss of direct commission from airlines made travel agents more beholden to the GDSs, which not only slip them a share of fees but also provide their back-office computing. Many online travel agencies have come to resemble physical ones, signing up with a GDS which provides a reservations system and other computing power while handing them a commission (ultimately paid by the airlines) on every booking. Despite airlines' efforts to make travellers bypass agents and come to their own websites, less than half of flights are booked this way.
旅行社失去了從航空公司獲得的直接佣金，轉而更加依賴全球分銷系統，這不僅使他們失去了一部分的所得，同時還要提供後臺計算。許多在線旅行社都像實體店一樣，和GDS簽署了協議，提供預約系統和其他電腦計算，同時每有一筆訂單還要交付一部分佣金（最終由航空公司買單）。儘管航空公司努力使旅客繞過旅行社直接到他們的網站預訂，但不足半數的航班票是採用這種方式預訂的。

Some airlines have thrown in the towel and let a GDS take over the running of all their in-house systems for handling passengers-in some cases, even their websites. Bookings on , for example, are handled by Amadeus. Some low-cost carriers, such as easyJet, which had at first refused to use GDSs have relented. This is because they want to reach high-value business flyers, who often make bookings through corporate travel agents—which, in turn, use a GDS to compile their itineraries.
一些航空公司已經認輸，讓GDS接管其內部乘客系統的運行。在某些情況下，甚至還包括他們的網站。例如，在上的預訂已由艾瑪迪斯運行。一些低成本航空公司，如易捷航空，在最開始拒絕使用GDS系統，而現在已經動心了。這是因爲他們想要拿到高價值的商業單，這些人往往通過企業代理旅行社預訂，最爲交換，易捷航空現在用GDS編寫行程單。

Although there are some big emerging travel markets, such as Brazil and India, where the GDSs' grip is weaker, in others they have been successful in signing up new agents and airlines. China's government is nurturing a state-owned version, TravelSky. The middlemen the airlines wanted to do away with remain comfortably entrenched.
雖然，在一些大的新興旅遊市場，如巴西和印度，全球分銷系統的控制力還較弱。在其他的國家，GDS已經成功地簽了新的旅行社和航空公司。中國政府正在扶持一個國有的分銷系統：民航（Travelsky）。航空公司希望剔除中間商的想法根深蒂固。

In recent years the main hope for restoring airline profitability has been ancillaries: all those extra charges for meals, checked bags, less-cramped seats and the like. The trouble is, carriers grumble, the GDSs' computer systems have struggled to cope with them, which makes it hard to flog such extras to passengers who book through agents. Like other airline chiefs, Qatar Airways' boss, Akbar Al Baker, complains of GDSs' slowness in updating their systems to cope with all these options, but he admits that they cannot do without the GDSs because they provide such a big share of their reservations.
近年來，航空公司一直視附加服務爲盈利的最大希望：在餐點、托運行李、寬敞的座位上收取額外的費用等。航空公司抱怨道，問題是，全球分銷系統的電腦系統卻不能滿足這些選擇，這就使得想在通過旅行社訂票的旅客身上收取額外的費用難上加難。和其他航空公司的老闆一樣，卡塔爾航空公司的老闆貝克爾（Akbar Al Baker）先生抱怨全球分銷系統更新緩慢，不能處理這些選項，但他也承認，他們離不了全球分銷系統，因爲它爲公司提供的訂單所佔份額很大。

American Airlines, Air Canada and a few other carriers have tried to do so, by setting up a "direct connect" service, by which travel agents (physical or online) can bypass the GDSs and hook up to the airline's internal system to book both the basic flight and extras. To get any traction with this, the carriers are having to revert to paying agents commission-though less than they pay the GDSs. So far agents have mostly stuck with the GDSs: rebuilding their IT systems to make direct connections to airlines is expensive, and their contracts with GDSs may make it costly too.
美國航空、加拿大航空和其它一些航空公司已經嘗試通過設立"直接連接"的服務，通過旅行社（實體店或網店）繞過全球分銷系統，和該航空公司的內部系統相連，可以預定都基本航班和附加服務。爲此，航空公司要重新支付佣金給旅行社—雖然這筆錢比付給GDS 的數額要少。但目前爲止，代理商深陷全球分銷系統之中：要重建他們的IT系統，和航空公司直接連接耗價巨大，但他們與全球分銷系統所定的合同也價值不菲。

The search is on
搜索在繼續

Hoping to solve these problems, the airlines' international association, IATA, is working on a grandly titled "new distribution capability". One of its main elements will be a common technical standard for direct-connect services. The GDSs could make use of such services, so as to sell the airlines' full range of extras as well as just flights. But perhaps of more interest to the airlines is that it would become easier for travel agents to build computer systems that deal directly with airlines. It would also become easier for search engines to scour the web for flights, assemble a list of options for travellers, then let them click through to the website of their chosen airline to complete the booking—again without a GDS's involvement.
爲了解決這些問題，航空公司國際組織：國際航空運輸協會, 正致力於一個名爲"新分銷能力"的宏大項目。它的主旨之一是爲直接聯繫服務建立一個共同技術標準。全球分銷系統也可以利用這些服務，從而爲航空公司銷售各類附加服務，或者僅僅只是提供訂票服務。但，也許航空公司更感興趣的是，它使得旅行社建立電腦系統和航空公司相連變得容易了許多。同時，也使得搜索引擎可以更加容易地搜索網頁上的航班信息，形成列表提供給旅客，旅客們可以通過在網站上點擊經它們篩選過的航班完成預定—在這過程中，沒有GDS的參與。

Such a service is already offered by Google (which has bought ITA, an airline-software firm, and Frommer's, a guidebook publisher, as part of its push into the travel business). The airlines hope that common technical standards will also encourage the creation of lots of innovative new travel-search firms. Adam Wood, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, is sceptical: it would be hugely expensive for any new entrant to replicate the existing GDSs' heavy spending on technology: the need for such investment makes flight distribution a business that naturally tends towards an oligopoly, he reckons.
谷歌現已提供此類服務（Google購買了已經購買了航空軟件公司ITA和指南出版商Frommer，作爲進軍旅遊業務的一部分）。航空公司希望共同技術標準也將促進更多的新型旅行搜索公司的誕生。摩根士丹利的分析師亞當•伍德對此表示懷疑：任何新晉企業想要複製全球分銷系統，都要在技術上投入大量資金。對投資的需求會使得航班分銷生意趨於寡頭壟斷，他做出如上預測。

IATA hopes to have its new technical standards agreed by the end of the year-though as a rule, getting airlines to agree on such things is tricky. Then there would be the problem of implementation; the industry, like every other, has seen ambitious IT projects fail disastrously. Suppose that IATA does persuade hundreds of airlines to agree on the new technical standards, and successfully build computer systems that run on them. Even then, admits Gary Doernhoefer, an IATA official, the GDSs' grip on the industry may not change much without regulatory action to unpick their cosy agreements with travel agents.
國際航空運輸協會希望今年底可以通過新的技術標準。儘管這是條規則，但想獲得航空公司的同意卻有些棘手。隨後還要面臨着實施這條規則的問題：航空行業和其他行業一樣，都曾經歷過大型IT項目慘敗的結局。假設國際航空運輸協會說服了數百家航空公司同意新的技術標準，併成功地建立了運行的電腦系統。即使這樣，如若不消除航空公司和旅行社之間聯繫緊密的協議, 全球分銷系統對整個行業的控制可能也不會發生太大的變化，國際航空運輸協會官員加里承認道。

Regulators are indeed looking into the issue. An investigation into the GDSs by America's Department of Justice is quietly ticking over, and the European Commission is reviewing its code of conduct for them. Meanwhile, two of America's big carriers have taken GDSs to court over the tactics they use to maintain their hold over travel agents. American Airlines' case against Sabre is due to begin in a Texas state court in October. AA has also filed suits in federal courts against Sabre and Travelport (which owns Galileo and Worldspan and part-owns Orbitz, an online travel agency), as has US Airways against Sabre.
監管機構確實在調查這方面的問題。美國司法部正在調查全球分銷系統，歐洲委員會也在審查他們的行爲準則。同時，美國兩大航空公司已經將GDS告上法庭，控告他們使用不正當手法控制旅行社。美國航空公司對Sabre的這場官司將於10月在得克薩斯州法開庭。美國航空還在聯邦法院對Sabre和Travelport（擁有Galileo和Worldspan，和部分線上旅行社Orbitz的股份）提起訴訟，

The GDSs, meanwhile, are lobbying America's Department of Transportation to force airlines to include "core" extras (such as bag fees and check-in charges) in the fares they quote to the GDSs, to make for fairer comparisons with carriers that offer all-inclusive fares. Cory Garner, a senior executive at AA, says that in principle his airline is more than happy to provide such information, but its main worry is that the lobbying will prompt the government to lay down overly prescriptive rules on how it is provided. IATA and other airline associations fear a worse outcome: that they may be banned from offering any exclusive fares or promotions to agents which book directly rather than through a GDS. The department is expected to announce any rule changes in November.
與此同時，GDS遊說美國運輸部強制航空公司在給 GDS的費用中加上"核心"費用（如行李費和檢查費），這可以更加公平地對比航空公司之間的完全報價。美國航空高級管理人員科裏•加納表示：原則上，他所在的航空公司很樂意提供這樣的信息，但仍有疑慮，遊說組織將促使政府下達過於規定性的條約：規定怎麼提供這些方式。國際航空運輸協會和航空公司擔心更壞的結果：旅客直接訂票而不是通過GDS來訂票，它們可能會被禁止向代理結構提供任何額外的費用或者增額。運輸部預計在11月份宣佈變化的條規。

Both sides can claim to be the consumer's champion. The airlines argue that the cost of the middlemen adds to the price of tickets (though the superficial evidence suggests that it is airline shareholders who suffer). They say they want to reform the distribution system to offer flyers a wider choice and a more individually tailored service. The GDSs argue that they provide travellers, through their agents, with impartial comparisons of all available flights, allowing them to get the best value.
雙方都宣稱選擇自己是消費者的勝利。航空公司認爲，中間商的成本增加了機票的價格（雖然從表面上看吃虧的是航空公司的股東）。他們表示想要改革分配製度，給旅客提供更廣泛的選擇和更個性化的服務。GDS表示通過他們的代理人，提供給旅客所有航班的之間公平的比較，使得旅客能夠獲得最好的價值。

Svend Leirvaag, an executive at Amadeus, argues that it's a pity the airlines fixate so much on GDS fees, which at around 2% of their revenues are much less than the money the industry could save by fighting such things as ever-increasing travel taxes and the unfair subsidies that prop up some state-owned carriers. The airlines are lobbying for these things too, but they would still like to cut the cost of the middlemen.
艾瑪迪斯的主管斯文拉瓦格（音譯Leirvaag）表示很遺憾：航空公司總是盯着GDS費用不放，但是這些費用只佔航空公司總收入的2%，它們可以通過減少不斷增長的航空稅和不不公平的補貼來節省錢，這都比給GDS的錢要多得多。那些不公平的補貼支持了一些國有的航空公司。航空公司也在爲這些而遊說，但是他們仍然專注於減少在中間商身上的開銷。