International Air Transport Association

American Express Global Business Travel Sets Minimum NDC Requirements

American Express Global Business Travel developed guidance for a “minimum marketable product” using New Distribution Capability-compliant connections with airlines and distribution partners. The MMP has 162 use cases and helps demonstrate the depth of change management underway in airline distribution and retailing.  GBT, which eventually may donate the “living document” to the industry, has shared…

SAP Concur Builds To Latest NDC Version, ‘Protects’ Clients With Alternatives

[CORRECTION, Feb. 10, 2023: This article was significantly revised to eliminate misunderstandings about compatibility between different versions of NDC APIs.] SAP Concur said Thursday that its plan for next-generation airline connectivity centered on the 21.3 version of the International Air Transport Association’s NDC schema. Work would be completed no sooner than this summer, according to…

Explainer: Personalization And Airline Retailing

In light of American Airlines’ plan to move upwards of 40 percent of its fares to direct or NDC-enabled channels as of April, it’s worth re-examining one of the primary motivations: better tailoring products and services for flyers. As described by its developer, the International Air Transport Association, the NDC program enables “personalized service based…

Cards Still King As Airlines And Consultants Encourage Payment Alternatives

To achieve their retailing ambitions, airlines don’t just want to control distribution. Optimizing payments is also critical, according to some observers. Alternative models, methods and technologies that could help are in development, but the rise of rivals to the card has been predicted before. “Corporations seeking price breaks in markets where they influence load factors…

Travel Industry Gets Reprieve From New Payment Tokenization Rules In India

After several delays, India’s central bank this fall enacted payment security rules prohibiting the storage by merchants of customers’ credit card details. Instead, digital tokens would stand in. Not entirely ready, the travel industry got an extension, to June 2024, to work out how to use tokens when intermediaries like GDSs, TMCs and OBTs are…

Still Beating Display Drum, Delta Restates New Distribution Capability ‘Pause’

While continuing to argue that retailing capabilities in traditional connections and displays could improve, a Delta Air Lines exec on Wednesday said a New Distribution Capability project with Sabre that the airline halted a couple of years ago had “very much restarted.” Also this week, Delta officials clarified 2020 comments widely taken to mean NDC…

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