Continuing the furious pace of NDC-related announcements around the industry, Amadeus said American Airlines and BCD Travel agreed to join its NDC-X program. AA is the first North America-based carrier to commit. BCD joins U.S.-based American Express Global Business Travel and Carlson Wagonlit Travel, and Australia’s Flight Centre. For Amadeus, like Sabre and Travelport, incorporating NDC means mitigating content… Read More »
Deem is working on mobile messaging to remind travelers to book hotels and ground transportation if they didn’t do so when making an airline reservation. The company plans to make it available through Apple iOS and Google Android messaging applications starting in the fourth quarter. Deem will expand the service in 2019 to cover flight changes and dining.… Read More »
Blockchain startup Blockskye is running a proof of concept with the Airlines Reporting Corp. and also working with an unnamed airline and Fortune 100 corporate account to build a robust direct-booking and payment program. Blockchain would not enable fare shopping or make bookings. The carrier’s website would handle those computing-intensive processes. Rather, Blockskye would run some of the associated… Read More »
American Express Global Business Travel and Carlson Wagonlit Travel partnered with Amadeus for its NDC-X program. The two global travel management companies will work with the global distribution system provider to test usage of New Distribution Capability-enabled connections. “This will help GBT prepare to implement the industrialized version of the solution, which will include servicing capabilities, in 2019,” according to… Read More »
American Airlines, American Express Global Business Travel, Carlson Wagonlit Travel and Flight Centre Travel Group joined with Sabre to develop, integrate and test New Distribution Capability-enabled offers and orders. Under the program, called Beyond NDC, these launch partners and Sabre would seek to integrate NDC with the “retailing, distribution and fulfillment systems that support the travel ecosystem,” according to a… Read More »
Delta Air Lines expects to start piloting its new application programming interfaces with distribution intermediaries by the end of the year. While those APIs will be available to other aggregators, the focus is on global distribution systems. “For the Delta distribution strategy, which may differ from others, we view GDSs as consumers of the overwhelming amount of our… Read More »
The New Distribution Capability furnished by the International Air Transport Association is several years in the making. At least a few more are required for the industry at large to realize the intended benefit — more control for airlines in how they create and retail their services across the spectrum of distribution channels. AmTrav CEO Jeff Klee urges… Read More »