American Airlines withdrew its airfare listings from online travel aggregator sites operated by Orbitz Worldwide Inc earlier this week because the two companies failed to agree on terms for a new contract.
American also stated it will withdraw US Airways flights starting from September 1st, cutting thousands of routes and fares from orbitz.com and cheaptickets.com. The announcement of the withdrawal caused Orbitz shares to drop 8.5%.
American and Orbitz have historically disagreed over terms, and the latest dispute appeared unlikely to threaten rival online travel companies such as Priceline Group, Travelocity and Expedia, that continue to advertise flights with AA.
American Airlines spokesman Josh Freed said the airline reached agreements with other sites without a problem.
"In general, our strategy is to make our fares widely available," Freed said.
Orbitz has not commented specifically on the contract discussions, but did say that its sites still carry fares from “hundreds of airlines eager to capture the revenue American is choosing to forego."
Both companies noted that Orbitz for Business, which serves business travellers, was not affected by the policy.
AA withdraws its airfare listings from Orbitz websites
