Delta increases share by squeezing online travel agencies and metasearch

Delta.com is making strides in increasing its share of ticket sales as the airline’s tough-guy approach with online travel agencies and metasearch engines seems to be working.

In fact, officials say that during the second quarter, which ended June 30, Delta.com’s share of ticket sales climbed 4 percentage points to 37% of all Delta tickets sold.

How did this happen?

Since last last year Delta has terminated its relationships with 21 online travel agencies and has barred other online travel agencies from showing Delta flights in metasearch engines such as Kayak, Bing Travel and Hipmunk.

Those 21 online travel agencies on Delta’s hit-list included CheapAir, CheapOair, Vegas.com, AirGorilla, Globester, BookIt.com and OneTravel.

Expedia, Priceline, Travelocity and Orbitz continue to sell Delta’s flights.

But, the changes mean if you see a Delta flight in a travel metasearch engine, the link will be to Delta.com and not to an OTA.

And, Delta also barred OTAs from showing interline flights under the Delta brand.

Delta, of course, also invested in and overhauled Delta.com to make it easier to use, officials say.

“And our strategy really is to control our content, both with respect to combinability [interlining] and scheduled display criteria, so that we make certain that our schedules are accurately displayed and there’s no combinability,” CEO Richard Anderson said during the airline’s second quarter earnings call July 27.

“And utlimately, if our fair rules are followed and our display and content rules are followed by OTAs, then the only question is their fees have got to be similar to what it would cost us to distribute on Delta.com,” Anderson added.

In the context of the website improvements, Anderson also mentioned a direct-connect agreement the airline has with Farelogix to enhance distribution to travel agencies and corporations.

In connection with that agreement, Delta is expected to re-introduce a travel agency portal.