Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Court Demands American Airlines List Its Flights On Orbitz

Posted by timothy on from the information-wants-to-be-compelled-to-appear dept.

schwit1 writes "American Airlines, which removed its flights from Orbitz.com late last year, was ordered by a Chicago court on Thursday to allow the travel site access to its flight and fare information. American Airlines filed an anti-trust suit against Travelport in December, claiming that the company, which owns just under half of Orbitz's shares and runs the service compiling fare information for travel site, was trying to control the sale of tickets. Before the lawsuit, a considerable amount of American's revenue had been coming from tickets booked through Orbitz and Travelport."

3 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. Useless Article - Court Reasoning Not Explained by brucek2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I hate reading press accounts of court decisions that provide no useful information on what exactly the court was ruling on or how it reached its decision. Without this information, we have no idea if this decision was as broad as whether all airlines must list with central clearing houses (and why), as short-term / technical as over a paperwork error resulting in a temporary win for Orbitz until corrected by AA, or about something else altogether (ie there was a previously agreed to contract between the two companies that was still valid and that AA was trying to terminate early without sufficient justification.)

    To be sure wait until the court decision is linked before forming any opinions, or at the very least until an article presents a credible explanation of what the issue being litigated is and how the court ruled on it.

  2. Re:Am I missing something? by node+3 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Although I mostly agree with AA's stance here (with what little I know about the whole situation), the court is enforcing a contract AA has with Orbitz. This isn't the court simply telling them they have to deal with Orbitz, but that they have to honor their contract with them.

    Also, airlines are subject to greater regulatory restrictions than most other industries for, what I think should be fairly obvious reasons. Those reasons don't directly apply here, but it's not like this industry is as free to do as it wishes as is normal for the rest of the private sector.

  3. Re:airline hosed by judge. by darkshadow88 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Or you could read the article and see that American Airlines had a contract, and that the court is just forcing them to abide by it.