The Syrian government’s cozy relationship with the world’s leading airline ticketing companies
Photo Credit: Some big travel companies continued to do business with the Syrian goverment's airline until very recently. Flickr.com / Michael Dr Gumtau
Skift Take
Real corporate responsibility begins when companies go beyond mere "compliance" with regulations against outcast airlines and governments.
Despite the horrors of the Syrian government's attempt to brutally crush the uprising in Syria, global distribution system (GDS) and airline IT providers Travelport, Amadeus, and Sabre provided services to the Assad-goverment controlled Syrian Arab Airlines, even during its ongoing, brutal crackdown.
Travelport, which took in more than $4 million in revenue from Syria in 2011, only suspended Syrian Arab Airlines' GDS participation agreement when the European Union imposed sanctions a few months ago, in the fall of 2012, a Travelport spokesperson says. A Sabre spokesperson says it, too, kicked the airline out of its system, likely around the time of EU sanctions, but would not specify the exact date.
While Travelport has relationships with travel agencies in Syria through a third party, Amadeus in recent years has offered travel agency services through Syrian Arab Airlines, which also made its flight information available in the Amadeus GDS.
An Amadeus spokesperson wouldn
