Judge won't move or dismiss AMR lawsuit

A federal judge in Fort Worth has rejected a request by Travelport Ltd. to dismiss or transfer to an Illinois court an American Airlines lawsuit over the distribution of the carrier's fare and flight data to travel agents.

U.S. District Judge Terry Means rejected Travelport's argument Tuesday that an earlier agreement between it and American Airlines requires that the case be heard in a federal or state court in Cook County, Ill. The case is part of a dispute brought on by Fort Worth-based American's move to provide information directly to travel agents rather than going through a data provider such as Travelport, a closely held, Atlanta-based company. American, a unit of AMR Corp., accused Travelport of improperly dropping the carrier's fare and flight data in response. The judge also rejected American's bid to speed the sharing of evidence in the case. He said American's request was based "largely on its speculation" of what will occur when American's contracts with Travelport and Sabre Holdings Corp. expire this summer. "Should the events of the upcoming months unfold as American anticipates, then American may renew its request for relief at that time," the judge said in his ruling. In a July 18 filing, American said it was "very close to reaching a temporary agreement" under which Travelport would agree not to exclude American from its system until Jan. 31. Even if such an agreement were reached, the airline wrote, "the threat remains that Travelport still could exclude American upon the expiration of the temporary agreement."