NDC – More disruption than innovation?
WITH airlines focusing
more and more on
creating NDC content,
agents are understandably
interested in how this new
system will impact their lives.
The industry has become one
that sells experiences.
Since 2012, NDC has been
a buzz-word in the industry,
gaining more attention in
the last few months as
airlines focus on creating
NDC platforms. A number of
airlines have taken significant
steps in becoming NDC
certified, with around 20
airlines leading the pack
in development. According
to Yanik Hoyles, Iata NDC
programme director, despite
this buy-in, the programme
has yet to achieve critical
mass.
In response, Jan Buyckx,
manager of Air Solutions
Strategy & Data Sourcing at
Amadeus, said NDC would
take a long time to catch
up to GDSs. With NDC
development still in progress,
the system was not at the
maturity level of GDSs, and
he believed it would not be,
even in the next two years.
From an agent perspective,
the trade is concerned that
NDC will disrupt the work
flow. Jason Nooning, head
of Global Air Distribution
at Flight Centre Travel
Group, believes that key in
implementing NDC will be to
avoid disruption for agents.
He hoped that, through his
work with airlines, the carriers
were being exposed to the
work of agents and could
address the holes in their
systems.
If NDC disrupted the
flexibility that agents
offered clients, then it was
detrimental to the retail travel
business, he said.
However, with GDSs on
board, Jan hopes that the
process for agents will be
seamless. “It is our duty as
travel technology companies
to create the link between
NDC and agents, via the
platforms that already exist.”
Yanik concluded that the
pace of this change was only
growing, and that it was up
to agents to ensure that their
partners – particularly GDSs
and travel tech companies –
kept up with developments to
ensure the work of an agent
could continue uninterrupted
and, in fact, be enhanced.
Payment solution: Is Lata behind the curve
AS THE trade gets ready
for the implementation
of New Gen ISS, due
later this year, Iata and
agents continue to butt
heads over how the airline
organisation accepts
payments. Asata ceo,
Otto de Vries, opened
the day’s proceedings
with a spirited onslaught
on Iata’s resolution 890,
which makes it difficult (or
impossible) for agents to
transact with airlines using
agent cards.
Livia Vité, head of airline
partnerships at eNett
International, summarised
the key trends in payment
in the travel industry.
Amongst these, she
highlighted the issues of
agents acting as merchant.
She said: “Passengers are
looking for ways to use
their preferred payment
methods.” Agents are
ahead of the curve in this
regard, accepting a number
of forms of payment. “It’s
the business-to-business
payment that is currently
the problem.”
Jorge Dieguez, assistant
director of Member
and External Relations,
Finance and Distribution
at Iata, responded that
Iata was not against new
forms of payment, but
rather asked that thorough
consultation be held before
new payment solutions
were introduced. He went
on to say that payment
solutions fell under
commercial agreements
between airlines and
agencies and that Iata
did not get involved in
individual commercial
agreements. Otto posed
the question, which
remained unanswered:
“If these are commercial
agreements, why does Iata
draft regulations to frame
them?”
Airlines and Iata continue
to raise concern around
the added costs of doing
business, including
the collection of taxes
on behalf of airports
and governments. Livia
acknowledged these costs,
but said: “There must be
some options of payment
solutions that exist that
we can both – agents and
airlines – agree on, and
afford.”
