DISTRIBUTION


interest. John Bukowski, director – global content and distribution strategy at Amex GBT, believes NDC will help airlines offer more sophisticated packages to corporate travellers via the TMCs. “Airlines have had to upgrade their


APIs,” he says. “TMCs can now ask corporate customers what’s important to them, such as different types of corporate bundles. It will be important for airlines to display fares, and compare them. For


example, airline A offers one bundle at Ð200, airline B at Ð250. How do [bookers] decide what’s best?” BA’s NDC developer website appears to


back this up, stating: “the end customer benefits with a more transparent booking process so they can make informed decisions about what each airline offers and who they decide to travel with”. Bukowski continues: “We are actively


engaged with the airlines, trying to work on NDC to enhance the point of sale, and add value to corporate customers – there’s


74 BBT May/June 2018


“NDC-X is the


baseplate; you need an essential bedrock in place”


also duty-of-care and policy control as well as fares. We’re looking across from where the traveller leaves home to when they return – it’s not just airspace.”


THE X FACTOR Amadeus is also keen to engage TMCs on NDC’s potential, and earlier this year launched NDC-X. It should be noted this is not a new standard, or protocol, but more of a marketing tactic by Amadeus to re-engage the industry. Gianni Pisanello, vice-president of the programme at Amadeus, says the name was inspired by SpaceX, Elon Musk’s frontier- pushing space transport company. “NDC-X is the baseplate; you need an essential


bedrock in place.... Flight Centre is a key driver in terms of how NDC functions in practice,” he explains. Marcus Eklund, global leader of Flight


Centre’s FCM Travel Solution’s division, affirms this: “This is more of a strategic partnership, in line with Amadeus’s vision.” With NDC-X in place, both believe now


is the time to start approaching airlines, as it is only recently the larger airlines have truly adopted NDC. One of the most important NDC releases


was 17.2 in September last year (“this version of the schema is a major step forward”, IATA said at the time). However, not all airlines are on the same


page, with British Airways only recently having attained this standard and in January this year, IATA revealed that just nine airlines were using it. For Amadeus, version 17.2 should be the minimum standard, as it factors in more technical solutions concerning “servicing”, such as being able to change bookings.


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