Court Demands American Airlines List Its Flights On Orbitz

schwit1 writes "American Airlines, which removed its flights from Orbitz.com late last year, was ordered by a Chicago court on Thursday to allow the travel site access to its flight and fare information. American Airlines filed an anti-trust suit against Travelport in December, claiming that the company, which owns just under half of Orbitz's shares and runs the service compiling fare information for travel site, was trying to control the sale of tickets. Before the lawsuit, a considerable amount of American's revenue had been coming from tickets booked through Orbitz and Travelport."

Re:Free Trade?

[whoever57]

Can't I sell my goods and services where I want?

Not when you have a contract to sell them through an intermediary.

Re:Am I missing something?

[node 3]

Although I mostly agree with AA's stance here (with what little I know about the whole situation), the court is enforcing a contract AA has with Orbitz. This isn't the court simply telling them they have to deal with Orbitz, but that they have to honor their contract with them.

Also, airlines are subject to greater regulatory restrictions than most other industries for, what I think should be fairly obvious reasons. Those reasons don't directly apply here, but it's not like this industry is as free to do as it wishes as is normal for the rest of the private sector.

Re:About time

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck American Airlines. Fly American if you want to stare at a "fasten seat beat" light for the entire flight. It's their policy. Fly American if you want to die from a blood clot.