Announced this week, the Lufthansa group’s new distribution structure leaves corporate travel buyers two options: pay the new ‘DCC’ fee of €16 or book directly on a Lufthansa Group website.

The issue is that booking via the TMC and the GDS provides the ability to compare carriers and fares, and this isn’t possible through Lufthansa.com.

The airline is following a trend whereby their desire to control its own distribution does not align with the strategies of agencies and travel managers.

So how does the trend towards direct distribution affect the corporate travel buyer? Direct booking is encouraging the buyer away from the TMC and towards direct relationships with suppliers.

The TMCs haven’t invested in technology to make themselves independent from the GDS and this means any corporate with a large travel spend could find themselves with a considerable additional cost.

Travel buyers should bear this trend in mind when negotiating with airlines, but also any future TMC contract renewal should focus heavily on the future distribution and booking options and the potential additional cost of a managed programme through a TMC.

In reality, direct booking is not an option for a corporate with large volumes at this present time. Many airlines such as Lufthansa do not have the platform to provide the requirements for mass booking, but this will come.

Will Lufthansa’s strategy pay off? Will other carriers follow or will they play up to the fact they have chosen not to go in this direction?

What is certain is that yet again the travel buyer has to manage additional complexity and cost in their programme.