San Diego – Participants at last week’s Global Business Travel Association convention showed a stronger spirit of collaboration on alternative airline distribution than in years past. Notwithstanding mixed takes on the specifics, attendees and speakers reinforced the theme that corporate customers need the same sets of product and service options regardless of where they shop. New and updated distribution… Read More »
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 »
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 »
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 »
[CORRECTION, July 13, 2018: The original version of this article incorrectly identified one of the owners of Atriis. Along with Israel’s Amsalem, the other co-owner is Vision Capital, a U.K.-based private equity firm.] Some travel management companies are coming to grips with the New Distribution Capability, and they’re not going it alone. Global distribution systems, agency networks, tech… Read More »
Amadeus became the tenth company in IATA’s New Distribution Capability program certified as a Level-3 aggregator, according to IATA’s NDC Registry. Amadeus previously achieved Level 3 certification, the highest level, as an IT provider. The certifications indicate a company’s ability to handle messaging via an NDC-compliant application programming interface. For aggregators, that means consuming such APIs made available… Read More »
Southwest Airlines is using new revenue management tools in a fight against lower-cost competition. For travel buyers, the impact could be fewer low airfares from Southwest and, in turn, its big three U.S. rivals. Already there are signs pointing to fare hikes during the second half of this year. Fuel prices are up, prompting some airlines to slow capacity… Read More »