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Exhibit 10.4
AGREEMENT
—PROJECT CERVANTES—
This Agreement is made effective as of this 3rd day of March, 2006 by and
between Amadeus Global Travel Distribution, S.A. ("Amadeus") and
Sabre Inc. ("Sabre"), hereafter referred to in the singular as
Party or GDS Party or in the plural as Parties or GDS Parties.
Preamble
Whereas, it is the objective of GDS operators (i) to provide travel agencies
with the widest possible inventory of travel information in general and air
travel information in particular; and (ii) to enable in turn travel providers
access to the greatest number of travel agencies, both for the benefit of the
consumer;
Whereas, on occasion a GDS may not have access to book travel on a given
airline, whilst such access may be available to the other GDS;
Whereas, the GDS Parties especially wish to protect travel agents that use
their systems from potential disruption of their businesses in the event that
an airline suspends participation in a GDS Party's reservation system;
Whereas, the GDS Parties wish to provide a framework for remedying the lack
of access to bookings by enabling one another to complete bookings on
airlines which do not participate in their system, with a view to enhancing
and improving their offerings to travel agencies and consumers;
NOW THEREFORE, the Parties agree as follows:
Clause 1—Purpose of the Agreement
To enable each GDS Party to gain access to the other GDS Party's multiple
reservation system, on a reciprocal basis, with the objective of allowing the
GDS Party that requests such access to enable its agents to book on airlines
that do not participate in the requesting GDS Party's reservation system.
Clause 2—Definitions
For the purposes of this Agreement, the following terms shall have the
meaning ascribed below.
—"Agreement"
shall mean this Agreement, as amended or supplemented from time to time,
including the attachments to this Agreement and amendments or supplements
thereto;
—"Retail GDS"
shall mean the GDS Party requesting from the Content Back-Up GDS access for
its Retail GDS Travel Agents to the inventory of a Non-Retail GDS Airline;
—"Content Back-Up GDS"
shall mean the GDS Party that grants the Retail GDS, solely at the latter's
request, access to the inventory of a Non-Retail GDS Airline. The Content
Back-Up GDS enables the Retail GDS Subscribers to complete a booking on the
Non-Retail GDS Airline, invoices and collects subsequently the booking fee
contractually due from that airline;
—"Non-Retail GDS Airline"
shall mean an airline which supplies its air travel information to the
Content Back-Up GDS and does not participate in the Retail GDS;
—"Retail GDS Subscriber(s)"
shall mean the travel agency subscribers of the Retail GDS;
—"Confidential Information"
shall mean information, not generally known in the relevant trade or
industry, which was received by the Retail GDS from the Content Back-Up GDS
or conversely by the Content Back-Up GDS from the Retail GDS in order to
implement the provisions of this Agreement and which relates solely and
exclusively to technical information necessary to achieve the aims of this
Agreement. Confidential Information does not include information (i) that is
already known to the other Party at the time of disclosure and not covered by
a separate agreement; and/or (ii) that becomes publicly available (other than
due to a breach by the receiving Party); and/or (iii) that is rightfully
received by the receiving Party from a third party without an obligation of
confidentiality.
Clause 3—Terms of Access
Upon sole request by the Retail GDS, the Content Back-Up GDS shall take all
reasonable efforts to provide access to the Retail GDS within 24 hours (or as
soon as possible thereafter) for the purpose of enabling the Retail GDS
Subscribers to complete a booking on a Non-Retail GDS Airline.
The Content Back-Up GDS shall activate such access, subject to the following
terms and conditions:
—
Content Back-Up GDS grants Retail GDS access to its reservation system to
enable the Retail GDS Subscribers to complete a booking through the Retail
GDS, which access shall be comparable in speed and convenience to that
granted by the Content Back-Up GDS to its own subscribers. For greater
certainty, under this obligation, the Content Back-Up GDS shall provide no
less favorable treatment in terms of priority in processing the message
traffic on behalf of the users of the Retail GDS than it provides to direct
subscribers of its GDS.
—
Access granted to Retail GDS Subscribers is limited to searching air travel
information provided by Non-Retail GDS Airlines and making a booking on those
airlines.
—
The Retail GDS may request that access as described above be terminated with
respect to a Non-Retail GDS Airline at any time and at its sole discretion.
The Content Back-Up GDS will be entitled to refuse requests for access as
above defined in relation with carriers that do not participate in the Retail
GDS at the time of execution of this Agreement, including in particular where
it can establish that such access would be contrary to any of its existing
commitments. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary set forth in this
Clause 3 or elsewhere in this Agreement, the Content Back-Up GDS shall not be
in breach of this Agreement or in any way liable to the Retail GDS or any
Retail Subscribers if the Content Back-Up GDS does not provide the Retail GDS
access to the Content Back-Up GDS' reservation system in accordance with this
Clause 3 because the provision of such access is prohibited by an injunction
(whether temporary or permanent) or other order of a court of competent
jurisdiction or by applicable law; provided, that the Content Back-Up GDS has
used commercially reasonable efforts to defend against the imposition of any
such injunction or other court order.
2
Clause 4—Excluded Countries
Due to prior commitments of the Parties, this Agreement shall not apply to
certain countries set out in Attachment 1 (Geographic Scope of
Agreement—Excluded Countries), and with respect to certain other
countries it will apply under the terms and conditions also set forth in that
Attachment.
Clause 5—Pricing
The Content Back-Up GDS shall pay to the Retail GDS a compensation for each
booking as per the economic conditions reflected in Attachment 2
(Financial Compensation Mechanism).
Clause 6—Right of Suspension in the Event of Disruption
The Retail GDS shall take all commercially reasonable precautions necessary
to prevent unauthorized access to or improper use of the system of the
Content Back-Up GDS. In the event that the Content Back-Up GDS reasonably
considers that the Retail GDS is causing or allowing to be caused an abuse or
misuse of its system, it may suspend such access or terminate the agreement.
Improper use shall include, but is not limited to, generating message
activity with the system of such speed or volume that is likely to lead to
malfunctions or degradation of system performance.