A continuous sourcing model for corporate travel is emerging, but the industry is still grappling with IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC), a data exchange format based on offer and order management processes, allowing airlines to create and distribute relevant offers to customers regardless of the distribution channel.
With this new sourcing trend, Nicola Winchester, director of global travel at EY, emphasised that airline pricing should be based on future data, not historical data.
Johnny Thorsen, vice president, partnerships, Spotnana, and a fellow panelist at the recent Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) APAC Conference in Singapore, agreed that the industry can no longer adopt a “once-a-year buyer mindset.” He added that artificial intelligence can help by amalgamating data and eliminating outdated airfares.
A veteran corporate travel manager told TTGmice that airlines have the technology to reprice airfares based on backend sales data continuously. For instance, United Airlines can file up to 26 fares that differ slightly in price. However, he noted that NDC seems to favour airlines by enabling them to deliver more personalised services, rather than assisting corporate travel buyers.
This situation leads to airfares and eligibilities on a company’s online booking tool not being foolproof, while travel management company (TMC) operation teams struggle to keep up.
“Each airline is creating its own NDC strategy with some similarities, but inconsistencies exist. Some airlines work with global distribution systems (GDSs) and offer direct connections, but others do not, limiting content access,” he explained.
Due to cost factors, his company’s Online Booking Tool (OBT) is still catching up in building direct connections with airlines using different NDC versions, with no concerted effort to upgrade to the latest standards.
He called for better standardisation of NDC, GDS, and APIs (application programming interfaces), and urged regulators to step in, though he remained sceptical about potential intervention.
Adriana Nainggolan, travel programme manager APAC at Autodesk, said: “It all goes down to industry standards for NDC readiness. Airlines have worked with GDSs and TMCs will need to create the Minimum Marketable Product (MMP) Framework to be able to sell the NDC fares on OBTs.”
She cited American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) as an example of providing companies access to comprehensive and competitive travel content. In May, Amex GBT announced the extension of its private channel agreement with British Airways (BA), ensuring customers have surcharge-free access to BA content while NDC and modern retailing capabilities evolve.
Amex GBT acknowledged that transforming air distribution with NDC is a complex endeavour requiring alignment across the entire travel ecosystem. The TMC stated: “To help develop robust NDC connections for business travel, we’ve created the MMP framework, available through public, open channels.”
“This framework, based on early deployments of NDC-sourced content, includes 162 use cases that airlines, GDSs, and OBTs need to fulfil before integrating NDC content into the Amex GBT marketplace.”
