British Airways is to launch more content in the first half of 2018 to the travel trade thanks to new distribution capability, starting with new short-haul price points.

The move follows the successful introduction by the airline of the distribution technology charge and new agreements with trade partners.

Adam Daniels, BA chief commercial officer, said: “We’ve successfully changed our approach to distribution and the transition has gone incredibly well.

“We’ve received great support from the trade, including signing new, modified agreements with the three global distribution services and over 50 of the top UK agents with the view to them developing new distribution capability connections with us.”

New distribution capability technology brings customers, agents and airlines benefits in merchandising flexibility and richer content.

The charge was implemented for bookings that are not made using a new distribution capability based connection, or through other low-cost channels, such as the airline’s website, sales offices and call-centres.

Daniels continued: “We know this is a significant change for agents and we understand that implementation of new distribution capability requires some planning, so we are delighted that so many of our partners are now working on it with us.

“We’ve been speaking much more directly to agents about distribution and those two-way conversations mean that we’re able to build new products based on their requirements.

“The introduction to ancillaries has lead the field and in the first half of 2018 we will be introducing significantly more short-haul price points.

“The change will enable us to compete more efficiently with other short-haul carriers and offer a wider spread of fares, which will benefit the trade and customers alike.

“The new short-haul price products will be available to both the direct and indirect channels.

“We know that new distribution capability will support these new products, so we are confident that these new products can be made available to trade partners who have such a connection in place.

“We are in discussion with third party technology providers including global distribution services about provision of these products, as we want these products to be available widely so that we compete more effectively.”

This is the first of many new products that we expect to provide that will have features that are supported by new distribution capability.

We will be sharing details with the trade and technology providers.