Ukrainian International Airlines is to impose a $9 surcharge on every booking made through the world’s Global Distribution Systems.

The fee on each segment made on tickets bought via Amadeus, Travelport and Sabre will come into force by the end of April 2017.

But anyone thinking this is a carbon copy of Lufthansa‘s controversial move in 2015 to introduce a €16 fee on GDS bookings should look closer.

Whilst there is an effort by the Kiev-based carrier to hit travellers using GDSs with a levy, such action is part of a wider move to force passengers to book on its website.

Other channels hit with the same $9 per segment fee include bookings made on Gabriel-SITA and Sirena, Russia’s main air ticket distribution platform.

UIA is currently banned from operating flights to and from Russia.

The GDSs and third parties are not the only channels to face a surcharge on bookings.

Any passenger booking a ticket through the airline’s own ticket offices will face a $18 charge (“service fee”) on all international return fares (the same as the GDS charge) and $5 on domestic flights.

It will impose a fee ranging from $0 to $10 on journeys booked on its consumer-facing platform, depending on the route.

In a statement, UIA says the charge is due to “growing fees of GDSs” but makes no mention of the other fees it imposes.