NEWS TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS CONTINUED FROM THE BACK
“NDC is just an API, just a new technical standard.” An API, or application programming interface, allows data transfer between IT systems. Iata proposes 21 airlines will distribute 20% of their content through NDC by 2020. De Bono pointed out: “By 2020, 80% of [these airlines’] content will not be in NDC [and] we will be in a hybrid world. It is going to be a hybrid world for five to 10 years.” She recalled the time it took
Iata to phase out paper tickets, noting: “The last paper ticket was written in May this year.” Iata declared “100% electronic ticketing” in 2008 after adopting global e-ticketing standards in 1997. De Bono said: “That was just putting paper tickets in digital form. NDC is a lot bigger.” NDC systems will differ
markedly from GDS systems. De Bono explained: “The NDC world is stripped down to ‘shop, order, pay’. It will have ‘offers’ instead of fares and ‘orders’ instead of PNRs [passenger name records].” She said: “We explored ways
to integrate NDC. One option was to keep NDC separate, but that posed an integration and maintenance nightmare. A second was to hide NDC content behind GDS content. There would be a massive benefit in reduced disruption, but it would limit the potential of NDC and not be future-proof. “A third option was to hide GDS content behind NDC content. That involves a lot of changes but the unanimous feeling among agents was ‘better do it once and do it properly’.” De Bono said: “The first book-
ings are happening now. This will go live in the next few weeks.” She promised “an industrial version next year” but said: “This is a big change. Performance has to be centre stage [and] it’s costing so much money.”
Agents are wary of NDC and won’t move – McLeod
Ian Taylor
ian.taylor@travelweekly.co.uk
New Distribution Capability (NDC) technology being developed by airlines needs to attain “critical mass” before most agents engage with it.
That is the view of SPAA
president and Advantage Travel Partnership director for industry affairs Ken McLeod, who asked: “Who is going to pay for this?” He warned: “There is still a lot of confusion. Agents are wary of NDC.” McLeod told an Amadeus
fringe session at Abta’s Travel Convention in Seville: “The key question is when will this have critical mass? Until it reaches critical mass, until it’s clear what options there are in the market, small agents will not move.” He insisted: “At the moment,
there is nothing available that will do the whole job [through NDC]. Until something does 80% or 90% of the job, agents won’t move. “Most are waiting to see what the GDSs bring out. We know we’re not going back, but who is going to pay for this? Amadeus says NDC will cost a lot. Are we going to stay with the status quo
Bevan: Airlines are going to need huge IT departments
Iata’s NDC is “all about airlines trying to reduce their cost of distribution”, according to dnata Travel Europe chief executive John Bevan. Speaking at an Amadeus- sponsored discussion at Abta’s Travel Convention, Bevan said:
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travelweekly.co.uk 18 October 2018
from. They can’t get to 20% unless they have volume.” He suggested the carriers would look to attain this through online travel agents. Clare de Bono, Amadeus UK head of product and innovation, agreed: “A lot of agents won’t move if it’s only 20% of content.” In fact, this would equate to about 4% of Iata members’ content. McLeod said: “The commercials
MCLEOD: ‘Until [NDC] does 90% of the job, agents won’t move’
where airlines don’t like what the GDSs charge and want to be paid [to make content available]?” Referring to Iata’s intention to
have 21 airlines distribute 20% of their content via NDC by 2020, McLeod said: “The airlines say 20%, but they don’t say where
“Airlines are trying to change the model. This is about airlines trying to reduce their cost of distribution.” He said dnata is creating its own
NDC solution “because we feel we have to, because a whole bunch of fares are not going to be available through the GDS”. Bevan said: “British Airways
is quite a long way down the line [with NDC]. Most of its European fares are available through NDC.” He insisted: “The airlines
underestimate what you do for them. They can cope with one
are not agreed by airlines and GDSs yet. What is it going to cost the middleman? Smaller agents and operators can’t afford a lot. “Airlines want to sell more
product. Everyone wants to sell more product. But there is no point extending bookings if we don’t make any money out of it, if we turn a five-minute booking into a 50-minute booking. “There is a huge cost. Someone
has to pay for this, [and] at the end of the day it will be the consumer.”
agency doing a few routes [via NDC], but they are going to need huge IT departments.” Ken McLeod, SPAA president
and Advantage Travel Partnership director for industry affairs, said: “The airlines have stated they have three aims. They want to sell more product. They want customers to be able to see product to differentiate, and they want to break the monopoly of the GDSs. “My concern is we will spend
all this money and some other technology will come out.”
“There is a huge cost. Someone has to pay for this, [and] at the end of the day it will be the consumer”
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