Orbitz Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: OWW) shares surged 25.8% to $2.78 Thursday morning, after an Illinois court ruled Wednesday that American Airlines must let the online travel company resume selling its tickets. Volume for the stock was 1.3 million shares, or more than four times its all-day average.
American (owned by parent AMR Corporation) had removed its information from the website in December while it disputed the terms that it shares with the global distribution systems that currently act as the distributors for flight data of more than 90% of flights bought by consumers in the U.S.
American and other airlines want to be able to sell more flights of products through their own websites, cutting out the fees that they currently pay to GDS providers. The former re-entered a court dispute with GDS providers Sabre and Travelocity with an antitrust suit it filed in a Texas court Wednesday.
“This reinstatement of American Airlines’ full schedule of flights on Orbitz.com and Orbitz for Business is a win for transparency, consumer choice and for all of our mutual customers,” Orbitz said in a statement.
The decision grants Orbitz and Travelport, which owns nearly half of Orbitz, injunctive relief that was denied late last year by a different judge. Travelport later appealed that ruling.