Certainly there’s plenty of room for optimism, says Paige Blunt, senior manager of Direct Connect and ONE Order at ARC. "We anticipate that 2025 will mark a significant milestone for NDC, given the momentum already building in the industry," Blunt notes, pointing to the standard's potential for fostering deeper collaboration among airlines, TMCs and technology providers. "I expect that next year and beyond, we will see the rise of more innovative partnerships that simplify the corporate travel booking experience and improve both content delivery and back-end processes."
Similar acceleration of NDC is being seen at Amadeus. "Over the past few months, we’ve observed significant growth in bookings, with a four-fold increase in NDC-based bookings compared to last year," reports Jay Richmond, senior director, solution consulting. "In the distribution mix for several airlines, we’re seeing that one out of every two bookings is now NDC."
For certain use cases, Richmond says TMCs are starting to utilize NDC at scale. "'Our NDC airlines are eager to roll out NDC in the corporate segment and are focused on enabling advanced servicing capabilities," he says. "This will allow TMCs to better service corporate travelers in case of changes in plans or flight disruptions."
Part of the story is the continued reaction to the decision by American Airlines in early 2023 to offer third-party public channel content only through NDC connections.
Bill Brindle, vice president of commercials and content at Spotnana, points out that in making that move, American expedited the change in conversation from “will NDC happen” to “when” and “how.” Before this, many travel managers did not consider NDC a priority or only had a basic understanding of NDC, he says. "The market is now more informed, with an understanding that a well-run travel program requires access to the best air content available."
Kristen Pratt, senior vice president, technology initiatives, CTM North America, anticipates continued NDC progress in enabling capabilities that go beyond just booking, with a strong focus on enhancing servicing functionalities. "Both airlines and their distribution partners will need to ensure that these capabilities support not only travel sellers but also allow end users to self-serve within the parameters of their travel programs," she says.
“The shift to NDC is inevitable,” Brindle predicts. He says it presents an opportunity to innovate with the corporation's technology partner and TMC to offer custom bundles that provide value based on the unique context of that company's travelers.
Obstacles Remain
Despite healthy progress, NDC is not without its hassles. Some of the biggest challenges, according to Blunt, relate to the servicing of NDC transactions, including unused value, qualifiers, ticketing time limits, order change notifications, exchanges, rules visibility, voids and debit memos. She notes that ARC is addressing such roadblocks by working with industry stakeholders throughout the travel ecosystem to develop industry-backed best practices with its NDC Advancement Working Group (NAWG).
Pratt says that while one airline or technology partner may say it's ‘ready,’ each company’s view of ‘ready’ is different based on their travel policy and program approach. "As long as airlines continue to apply NDC standards differently and without fully understanding the complexity of how customers buy travel, there is the potential for challenges with corporate programs,” she notes.
Thane Jackson, SVP of global distribution strategy at BCD Travel, points out that while NDC capability, availability and customer adoption continue to gain traction, more players need
to participate. “There is still a long way to go and a long tail of airlines that haven't entered into the NDC journey yet," he notes.
A common assumption is that NDC automatically equals lower airfares, so customers often ask how much they will save, Jackson adds. "It’s a reasonable question, but the reality is that NDC is an airline-driven initiative to control their own distribution, offering more pricing flexibility (up and down) and creating personalized offers for travelers and corporations." He notes that unlike a static set of published fares as it used to be, NDC pricing is based on preferences at the time of search, meaning fares may be flexed up or down based on demand, time of day and route competition. That means NDC doesn't necessarily guarantee fare savings – it can go either way depending on these variables.
Moving Forward
All in all, NDC enables a significant step forward when airlines ensure consistent content distribution across all channels, including TMCs, according to Pratt. "It can help streamline managed travel programs and improve compliance," she says. "The enhanced order change notifications are a big advantage, too.” They provide real-time visibility into any changes, which means more accurate and timely updates for both travelers and travel managers.
"The vision of NDC is an enhanced experience for the traveler, but this also has downstream benefits for the travel manager and the airline," says Nick Whitehead, chief marketing officer for Serko. He believes the opportunity to get personalized offers and seat selection relevant to their status are big improvements for the traveler, while the ability to control and manage ancillary spend is significant for the travel manager. Too, the flexibility to offer custom bundles is a game changer for the airlines.
An analysis at the end of last year by Amadeus looked at airlines that were live with NDC-sourced content on its travel platform. The research found a number of value points beyond fares. Most of those airlines (80 percent) had dynamic or continuous pricing, 70 percent had NDC-exclusive ancillary services, half had NDC-exclusive bundles, and 30 percent had special fares/offers/discounts for NDC.
“There are other unique value elements for NDC beyond these,” Richmond says. “Airlines are continuing to evolve and refine their move to ‘offer/order’ and we should see more unique value from the NDC technology as they progress.”
Going with the Flow
Given that the process of NDC adoption and implementation is evolving rapidly, corporate travel executives should stay informed about updates from airlines and technology providers, Blunt advises.
"Understanding the latest advancements can help optimize corporate travel strategies and leverage NDC to its full potential," she says. "I would also advise executives to prioritize systems that offer robust data reporting, as this is essential to ensure compliance.” Later this year, ARC plans to release the first set of NDC best practices developed by a working group made up of airlines, agencies (including TMCs, OTAs and consolidators) and travel technology providers (including GDSs, OBTs and other aggregators). This is intended to provide insight for handling non-competitive business processes to accelerate near distribution channel adoption.
"When you're making decisions about your tech and TMC strategy, make sure there is a consistent capability to support NDC now and into the future," Whitehead says. "If you have those partners aligned in their ability to not just support it, but to help you maximize the benefits, then you'll be well set to ride out any future disruption from changes in the supply chain."
Pratt affirms belief in NDC, but suggests remembering there may still be offers that a travel seller can identify in another channel that may be more competitive than an NDC fare. "A multi-channel strategy is going to be optimal for maximizing choice, value, and overall customer experience," she notes.
Brindle advises keeping the end goal in mind and setting expectations that the journey may not always be seamless. "If travelers understand that you’re working with your technology and airline partners to quickly address current issues while also offering new benefits, they’ll be more willing to deal with any temporary challenges in the short term."
NDC is a journey and a huge industry ecosystem endeavor, Richmond concludes. “And it is only by working together that we can progress, develop, and unlock its full potential and provide better travel experiences for travelers everywhere.”
Image: Shutterstock
