Direct channels help airlines save significant commissions by skipping intermediaries like GDS (Global Distribution System) and online travel agencies.

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They monitor news media, government agencies, airline Global Distribution System, corporate data bases, the Centers For Disease Control and foreign health organizations, police, fire and many foreign outlets.

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American has focused energy on disputing the online distribution of its flight tickets with the Global Distribution System Travelport and its affiliated website Orbitz, and the battle has now landed in court.

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Airlines have already been attempting to reduce the distribution costs by bypassing the Global Distribution System and encouraging the OTAs to connect directly to their servers and by selling air tickets themselves on their websites.

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American Airlines, owned by parent AMR Corporation, has picked up an antitrust battle against Sabre Holdings, a global distribution system that provides flight data to third-party ticket agents and websites, saying its business practices are anti-competitive and not in the interest of the consumer.

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It proposed a worldwide distribution system called GIBN -- Global Interoperability for Broadband Networks -- at a Paris meeting of telecommunications officials from the world's seven richest industrial countries.

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As they do not now have global networks, economies of scale from using Allied's distribution system would be lower.

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With ebooks, the distribution system becomes much more efficient and cheaper with a potentially global market, as there are no barriers for exporting to other countries.

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