United Airlines said it will remove Basic Economy fares for domestic US and short-haul Latin American flights from EDIFACT on Sept. 5 and have that content offered only through its direct website or app, or New Distribution Capability (NDC)-enabled channels, according to a memo from Doreen Burse, senior vice president of worldwide sales. It was sent to corporate customers and travel management company representatives who have subscribed to receive emails from sales at United for Business.

EDIFACT stands for electronic data interchange for administration, commerce and transport and is a global set of rules defined by the UN for the inter-company electronic data exchange between two or more business partners.

Burse wrote that Basic Economy fares are designed to work in concert with ancillary sales “and since EDIFACT is not able to sell ancillaries, therefore it is not an appropriate channel to offer our Basic Economy content.”

United plans to offer informational webinars on the topic in the coming weeks, “to keep lines of communication open and answer any questions,” Burse wrote. In addition, the carrier has a new website dedicated to its NDC offering.

The United move will come about five months after American Airlines began to pull up to 40% of its content from EDIFACT and make it available only in direct or NDC-enabled channels — a distribution change that has been contentious among travel buyers, including travel management companies.