While NDC offers the potential to revolutionise airline distribution, travel agents are grappling with its practical application. Some industry players believe that the adoption tipping point has been reached and that agents really need to start seeing, and chasing, the opportunities that NDC offers.
So, what’s stopping them?
Speaking to Travel News Pranit Singh, Business Travel Strategist and Director Programme Management of BCD Travel India, said the complexities of NDC, globally, meant that many travel agents were sticking with the familiar, efficient GDS channels rather than adopting NDC, despite its potential benefits.
“There are concrete issues within the booking process that are making NDC less appealing than the traditional GDS channels. One-way tickets, modifications and refunds are impacting on agents’ efficiency and customer service.”
Fragmentation
Explained Singh: “The introduction of multiple third-party NDC suppliers has created a fragmented landscape. Agents now need to navigate various interfaces and processes to access NDC content, each with its own quirks and limitations.
Airline NDC channels often fail to provide comprehensive booking data, making it challenging for agents to provide detailed reporting to corporate clients.
“The promise of enhanced content isn’t always realised. Agents often find it difficult to efficiently compare fares and ancillaries across multiple airlines in NDC, a task that is straightforward in GDS.”
CEO of Agentivity, Riaan van Schoor, told Travel News he believed that third-party suppliers coming on board was creating competition, which was a good thing.
“Third-party suppliers are improving the user interface and agent experience of booking NDC. However, it creates a scenario for the agent where content is now accessible in multiple channels, and agents are not technologists.
“We still lack a clear vision, agenda and path to execution from many airlines on NDC. We also need the GDSs to tell us more about what they are doing with NDC, with timelines.”
Monica Hansen, Corporate Communications at Amadeus, told Travel News about progress the Amadeus GDS had made with NDC access.
“As no two NDC connections are the same, and there are still many differences in the way that airlines deliver content via NDC, Amadeus is leveraging its aggregation capabilities to simplify the work for our customers.
“We manage the complexity of individual airline NDC and processes, with normalisation of the content and flows, so that our customers don’t have to. Our users can easily search, compare, book and service different airlines’ content via different sources in the same view and in the same way, without having to lose out on the benefits coming from existing customer profiles, similar mid- and back-office messaging and interoperability with other Amadeus solutions.”
Travel News also spoke to Damian Hickey, Global Head of Travel Partners at Travelport about how that GDS was developing access to NDC content. “At Travelport we’re all in on NDC, and we continue to innovate ways to normalise and optimise multi-source content for both suppliers and agencies.
“This year, we’ve doubled down on our multi-source content vision, signing updated NDC and low-cost carrier content agreements, and launching NDC content and servicing solutions with a variety of partners, including Air Dolomiti, AJet, Avianca, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Emirates, Etihad, Iberia, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, SAS, Swiss International Air Lines and more.”
Monique Diez, who represents Thomalex South Africa, said while agents could certainly shop on airline websites, it was time-consuming and made tracking and reporting tricky because content was potentially on multiple websites.
“With Thomalex (a third-party aggregation-based booking platform incorporating NDC) agents have the opportunity to view and book Direct Connect Airline content in one place and ensure that all reporting is easily accessible and consolidated, including GDS air/car/hotel data – the total travel report for any traveller.”
Thomalex by JR Technologies has successfully been awarded Level 2 certification by Amadeus. This allows the platform to offer Amadeus NDC-x content with ancillary booking and servicing capabilities. This gives agents the ability to view NDC-x content alongside GDS and NDC content on one platform.
Said Diez: “This simplifies the process of flight selection and allows agents to make an informed decision, considering the cost to the client, and the potential income to themselves. Equally, agents are equipped to consider making a wider range of commercials available to their clients, supporting service fees linked to savings, the benefits of achieving GDS targets and related segment fees earned.”