THE maturation of Iata’s
new distribution capability
will considerably change
agents’ workflow, while
giving airlines more
control of their content
at the likely expense of
transparency.
However, NDC adoption
is still in its infancy, with
many airlines having no
NDC plans at this stage
and NDC will likely evolve
in parallel to existing
booking technology for
some time. This means
that for the foreseeable
future, the current GDS
will continue to exist and
be bookable in its current
format.
These are some of the
insights Andy Hedley,
gm for Southern Africa
at Amadeus, shared
with TNW on the back of
Amadeus’s recent Iata
level 3 NDC certification
as an aggregator. Being
certified level 3 as
an aggregator means
Amadeus is able to serve
airline offers and manage
orders on NDC APIs.
It is the serving of
these NDC offers that will
change agents’ workflow.
Currently, agents have
access to all content that
airlines have loaded on
the GDS, allowing them
to make a selection
and book fares at their
discretion.
When bookings are
made on the NDC
standard, agents will not
see all the flights and fare
classes available for an
airline. Instead, the agent
sends through a request,
to which the airline
responds with an offer, or
offers. The airline has the
discretion to tailor this
offer, packing whichever
ancillaries it thinks will be
appealing to the customer,
and limiting the choice
available to the agent. The
airline can also determine
for how long the offer will
be available.
“Airlines want to control
what offer the customer
gets,” says Andy, adding
that NDC is the tool that
allows them to do this. He
explains that, with NDC
some of the transparency
offered by the GDS is lost
because agents cannot
see everything that is
available. “They see
what the airline decides
to show them,” he says,
adding that the airline will
show what it thinks the
customer will want to buy.
On the plus side, Andy
says that with NDC
bookings, ADMs should
fall away because the
airline decides on the
offer.
Andy says that because
the two workflows are
so different, Amadeus
is developing a platform
that will aggregate NDC
content together with
existing airline content,
which it hopes to roll
out in the next 12-18
months. This platform will
aggregate all the offers
airlines make based
on the agent’s request
as well as the content
currently available on the
GDS.
Andy expects that
agents will shift between
this platform and the
traditional GDS and
that there will be two
workflows for the
foreseeable future. The
current GDS structure
will continue, he says,
adding that event airlines
that are implementing
NDC programmes will not
migrate off the GDS any
time soon.
