Bobby Healy, the chief technology officer of ground transport B2B technology platform CarTrawler, said Google was getting closer to controlling the trip-planning process, with disastrous results for the industry.
He said: “Google is abusing its monopoly position in search and android to position itself between the consumer and the product at the expense of both the consumer, its competitors and partners.
“The top of the trip planning funnel is a beachhead which – if Google controls it – will represent the biggest loss of control of distribution, and consequent rise in cost and margin erosion ever seen by the airline industry.”
He added that tech companies had largely been able to interrupt traditional channels through strong third-party sales thanks to the big-data solutions they generate. Healy said: “You’re doing all the hard work and everyone else is benefiting. If airlines acted like tech platforms they could take back control.”
Instead, he said by providing Google with their inventory and pricing data airlines had created the “perfect storm” of a monopoly with “unprecedented access”.
He added: “Data is power, power is control. Customer access, insight, data, location; they [companies] know everything about your customer. Google’s stealth attack on travel is… going through the value chain eating everyone – starting with top of funnel, reviews, experiences and content, to meta, to OTAs and finally to suppliers.”
In addition, he claimed Google uses its own technology to promote its services ahead of rivals – recent analysis showed 91% of 25,000 recent searches put Google and its sister companies in the most prominent spot.
