International Airlines Group carriers British Airways and Iberia next month will again raise their surcharge on global distribution system bookings, BA alerted agencies this month.
Effective for transactions ticketed on or after Jan. 1, 2020, BA and Iberia will boost their surcharges by 50 euro cents to 13 euros and by 50 pence to 11 British pounds, but keep the U.S. charge flat at $14. The fee incurred for bookers varies by local point of sale and currency.
The airlines apply this fee for each "fare component," generally defined as each one-way or half a roundtrip.
The airlines have raised their distribution surcharge a few times since taking effect in November 2017. At launch, BA and Iberia imposed a fee of eight British pounds per fare component. That equated to 9.50 euros and $10.
BA and Iberia continue to waive this fee for "low-cost channels," including bookings on its own websites and those processed through channels that tap into application programming interfaces that conform to the New Distribution Capability standard.
"We periodically review our distribution costs to ensure that the amount of the Distribution Technology Charge (DTC) reflects the current additional costs incurred for bookings that are not made using an NDC-based connection or through other low-cost channels," according to BA's notice this month.