Amadeus vs Sabre vs Travelport. Which GDS fits your travel agency?

Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport at a glance

Airline coverage is broadly similar: the large network carriers sell through all three. Differences show up in specific fares (some carriers load private or regional fares in one GDS only), NDC depth, and local support.

Which GDS is strongest in which market?

Every GDS works everywhere, but agency habits, airline deals and local support teams differ by country. As a rough guide:

• Amadeus is the habit in most of Europe and is widely used across the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.
• Sabre leads in North America and has a large agency base in parts of Asia, the Gulf and South Asia.
• Travelport is strong in the UK and Ireland and in markets where agents learned on Galileo; in Bangladesh and Pakistan, for example, many agents still call it "Galileo".

Local market positions change with each GDS's airline and agency contracts, so ask each GDS's local office how many agencies in your country use it and which local carriers file fares there before deciding.

How do they compare on NDC?

All three now carry NDC content alongside traditional EDIFACT fares, through their own NDC programmes. In practice:

• The airlines live on NDC differ by GDS and by country, and change every quarter.
• Servicing (changes, refunds, voids) on NDC bookings is less complete than on classic GDS bookings, and varies by GDS and airline.
• Some airlines add a surcharge to non-NDC GDS bookings, so the same flight may cost more through a classic GDS channel.

Ask each GDS for its NDC airline list for your point of sale, and test a change and a refund on an NDC booking, not just a sale. Many agencies also add an NDC aggregator or direct airline APIs to fill the gaps.

How does GDS pricing work for agencies?

GDS pricing is negotiated, not published. Airlines pay the GDS a booking fee per segment, and the GDS shares part of that with high-volume agencies as an incentive. Smaller agencies may instead pay a monthly fee for the desktop and API access. Items to compare in a GDS contract:

• Segment incentive per booked and flown segment, and any tiers.
• Minimum segment commitments and penalties for missing them.
• Contract length, usually several years, and exit terms.
• Fees for API access, extra terminals, and hotel or car bookings.
• Whether NDC bookings count toward segment targets.

How to choose: a short checklist

1. Market: which GDS do the agencies and airlines in your country use most?
2. Content: do your key airlines, including local carriers and consolidator fares, ticket through it?
3. Team: which desktop do your agents already know? Retraining has a real cost.
4. Technology: if you run a website or B2B portal, how good are the APIs, sandbox and certification process?
5. Commercials: compare incentives net of minimums and contract length.
6. NDC: which of your top airlines are live on NDC in that GDS today?

You do not have to pick only one. Larger agencies often run two GDSs for fare coverage and negotiating leverage, plus low-cost carrier and NDC connections.

Using more than one GDS with Reservationhub

Reservationhub has pre-built connections to Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport, plus NDC aggregators and direct low-cost carriers, listed on our integrations page. You bring your own GDS credentials (your PCC, OID or Galileo PCC), and one search returns de-duplicated results across them, so you can compare fares and keep the GDS deal you negotiated.

Agencies get this through the Subscription Cloud Edition, enterprises can self-host it with the Source Code Edition, and platforms can call it through the TripGic travel API. New to the topic? Start with what a GDS is.