NDC EXPLAINED
corporate traveller and corporate purchaser. airlines and TMCS have not really shown what additional value NDC will bring to the corporates and that question mark is still out there.”
He adds that FCM has plans to beginning showing off some of the tangible benefits and demonstrate the value of NDC over the coming summer.
eklund says the confusion for corporates is fuelled with some airlines exploring different pricing points and releasing lower fares in the name of NDC which are more of a revenue management play.
His comments around collaboration and remaining confusion are echoed by Stephen Brook, Manager, Distribution Strategy, emea for american express GBT. He says that while the industry has already gone through a step change, it is not seeing the end products of NDC yet.
“The situation is encouraging and the discussions are around how this works for the client. it has gone towards a collaborative environment. There is definitely hype that NDC is ready now if only agencies and the gdss switched it on,” says Brook.
Fred Stratford, CEO of Reed & Mackay, believes there's an element of “NDC fatigue” at the moment, and that 2020 could be the breakthrough year.
“NDC still has a long way to go,” he says. “airlines have underestimated the amount of work involved in developing the technology and there seems to be a lot of point-scoring going on.”
He continues: “as a TMC, we don't want to be building hundreds of airline connections – that would just make us another GDS. The most important thing is making sure we still have all the content available.”
gbt's Brook also expects to see more significant steps in 2020. “it’s going to be an exciting 12 to
18 months when i think we will start to see NDC as offering something different to what exists today.”
it’s easy to get lost in the NDC developments not only for the partnership announcements but also talk of further levels coming out.
NDC Level 4 around full offer and order management for airlines has been introduced and aims to address the servicing issues for the intermediary channel when changes are required.
and there’s also talk of ndc@scale which is a set of criteria for airlines, aggregators and sellers to demonstrate that they have the minimum capabilities in place to get towards volumes of NDC bookings.
as the dots begin to be joined up for the industry, attention will gradually turn towards One Order. This will act as a complement to NDC and combine the information from Passenger name Records, etickets and electronic Messaging Documents into a single electronic record.
The hope is that it will simplify processes, increase efficiency, reduce cost and improve the passenger experience especially around changes and disruption.
FCM'S eklund says: “a lot of TMCS have actually worked with almost a One Order concept for quite some time. We have our own super PNR with non-gds content, hotels and we add other content.”
eklund also says there will be no rush towards One Order because the spotlight, for now, remains firmly on sorting out NDC.
An IATA initiative, NDC is designed to help airlines better display their various product offerings and set themselves apart from the competition, but is intrinsically linked to the fact airlines were unhappy with fees that GDSS charge to distribute their content. From a TMC point of view, GDSS do a perfectly good job of gathering content together but now both parties are investing in new technology to incorporate direct connections from airlines. Buyers rightly want assurances that they will still be getting choice and the best price from
their travel management company.
NDC still has a long way to go. Airlines have underestimated the amount of work involved in developing the technology and there's a lot of pointscoring going on”