investment. A lot of airlines have invested in this on their own. Other airlines are doing it by outsourcing with us, Farelogix [the subject of a $360 million takeover by Sabre which, as this report was going to press, was the subject of a US Department of Justice lawsuit] or other providers. “We will take the right steps to make


this a reality while others try to build it themselves.”


NDC passes


THE UK and Spain lead Europe on online accommodation bookings, with rates many times those for


overall retail sales (Figure 29). Larger companies show higher rates of


e-commerce, as a proportion of all turnover, than smaller (Figure 30)


% of turnover, enterprises with 10-plus staff FIGURE 29: E-COMMERCE


ACCOMMODATION BOOKINGS %


10 20 30 40 50


0


Accommodation bookings


Retail sales*


Highest EU rate: Norway (50%)


45%44% 32% 29% 22% 22% 11%11% 14% 5% 6% 12%


Highest EU rate: Ireland (28%)


EU France Germany Italy Spain UK


Norway Ireland


*All sales excluding motor trade Source:


Eurostat 2018


‘critical milestone’ Amadeus, American Airlines and American Express Global Business Travel announced completion of their first NDC bookings in August 2019, hailing what Amadeus described as a “critical milestone”. The partners processed live bookings


by American Express GBT using American Airlines’ NDC-enabled content via the Amadeus Travel API. The companies noted: “This is an


important step forward for airline retailing.” However, they acknowledged “full functionality of end-to-end booking flow and service, including cancellations, exchanges and ancillaries” would depend on “when capabilities reach scalable production levels”. Gianni Pisanello, vice-president of


Amadeus’ NDC (X) programme, said: “We have reached another critical milestone with two travel industry giants.” He noted: “Standardisation across the industry is the single most important factor” in reaching the point “where agencies can shop, book and service NDC bookings at scale and match current performance levels”.


FIGURE 30: TOTAL E-COMMERCE SALES, 2018 % of turnover


%


10 15 20 25 30


0 5


Highest EU rate: Belgium (32%)


Highest EU rate: Ireland (29%)


30% 24% 22% 19% 17% 14% 11% 17% 13% 14% 11% 12% 14% 13% 18% 16% 25% 24%


EU France Germany Italy Spain UK


Belgium Ireland


Highest EU rate: Ireland (41%)


Small enterprises: 10-plus staff


Medium enterprises: 50-249 staff


Large enterprises: 250-plus staff


Source: Eurostat


Travel Weekly Europe Report 2019 | 17


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52