If you listen to disruptor travel management companies such as Navan, sourcing all air content is a question of aggregating content from as many distribution channels as possible to give travel buyers the widest array of inventory choices. Navan, for example, provides NDC content from 17 major airlines and says one third of its flight bookings are now made via NDC. 

It’s a similar picture at TravelPerk, with content from 20 NDC airlines. Legacy players such as Gray Dawes are equally agile, aggregating GDS (Edifact), NDC and low-cost carrier content into one place utilising Atriis direct connections with 11 NDC airlines.

Dave Bishop, Gray Dawes Managing Director Europe, says this is the way clients can best buy. “We expose our clients to both GDS and NDC content in one place. This type of meta search is critical in our eyes as no one channel can deliver ‘best’.”

This is the only way buyers can be confident of the best prices and content. Bishop reckons that savings on NDC fares are 25% on average, across both flexible, semi-flex and non-flexible tickets.

Late adopters

Unfortunately, there are TMCs much slower in NDC adoption, which means that – depending on the route – up to 57% of fares published by an airline could be missing from non-NDC-enabled platforms, according to Navan. 

Travel buyers need to ask their TMC if they are holding back NDC content as it hasn’t reached a minimum viable product in the GDS. Bishop believes it might also be because they don’t have a platform to distribute content across all booking channels, lack of knowledge about how NDC works, an inability to drive change management, being stuck in ‘we’ve always done it this way’ and a lack of efficiency in their process.

“So they can’t find a way to book and service this content without either losing money or bookings or charging their clients more,” he explains.

Khalid Othman, Head of Air Product at Clarity, which is live with one NDC compliant airline, British Airways, says he is waiting for the same level of functionality in the NDC channel as the GDS (Edifact). ”That’s my Utopia.” Clarity will bring on board other long-haul scheduled carriers this year.

Some of the TMC tardiness could also be because they are not able to fully service clients post booking, with prompt refunds and seamless itinerary changes. TMCs are having to hang on the phone to airline call centres on premium phone numbers to complete both tasks very often, which triggers an additional surcharge to buyers. 

Adam Knights, Regional Managing Director ATPI, explains, they “discourage booking changeable tickets but attempt to explain to customers they will get increased surcharges or significant delays when making changes, therefore it is better to book the cheapest tickets you don’t change.”

Nevertheless, he believes this is improving month by month and has high hopes that airlines, GDSs and OBTs (Amadeus and Cytric in particular) will work together.

Purchasing interline tickets and multi-sector itineraries is also challenging. “There are some who believe that complex itineraries may still need to booked via Edifact for decades to come!” says ITM CEO Scott Davies. 

Adds Paul Tilstone, founder of consultancy temoji: “I think we’re still working through the plumbing and so are buyers seeing sufficient benefits in the products and services to make a difference yet? No.”

Push back

A BTA report launched last September passes the problem back to the airlines. CEO Clive Wratten advises travel managers to come together to demand price parity and accessibility of content across all distribution channels. – the GDS, NDC and direct connect. Will the airlines listen? ”Probably not,” he says. 

ITM’s Davies would encourage airlines to “consult meaningfully with the corporate market and before making radical changes o their distribution strategies”. Specifically, he would encourage airlines to ensure their distribution methods are compatible with the very specific nature of a corporate travel policy.

Jeff Klee, CEO of AmTrav, has been particularly outspoken about the list of top blockers slowing NDC adoption in corporate channels. 

However, airlines won’t change their distribution strategies so buyers need to re-think their air buying needs.

“More choices equals more complications but it has been a long time since you could go to one place to get everything,” asserts Glenn Hollister, United’s Vice President Sales Strategy & Effectiveness. He reckons best practice is for buyers to “be clear about what type of content they want, which airlines are important and what’s important to them”.

Temoji’s Tilstone adds: “Buyers need to really know what you (and your travellers) want, to start with, what the strategies of the airlines you consume from is, what the strategy of the intermediaries you use is and then work out what you can negotiate on (80/20) and how to consume what you want to buy.” 

Then contract with a TMC that “combines NDC connectivity and EDIFACT content into one marketplace,” says Kristina Geier, VP of Supplier Partnerships at TravelPerk.

Navan recommends a robust mix of GDSs – two at a minimum – NDC, aggregators and direct connections from all their locations to ensure the best shopping experience. It claims that large travel programmes have achieved six-digit annualised savings through this strategy. Also ensure that booking tools have NDC content enabled.

Full benefit

Better pricing is the only NDC benefit currently as NDC avoids Edifact surcharges, enables access to hand baggage only products as well as continuous pricing, all of which tend to be cheaper than traditional content. The general consensus is that NDC tends to be cheaper, not better.

That value will come. “We were sold a vision that this was being done for buyers’ benefit; the ability to create bespoke packages that were suitable for us. For example, combinations of classes, lounge access, luggage. Will that ever materialise?” asks independent consultant Chris Pouney.

“Most buyers are resigned to the fact they won’t see all content everywhere and are starting to see themselves more as curators of content,” he adds.

“The question is no longer, ‘Why can’t I see x low cost carriers’ lowest content’, but more, ‘For business travel why do we need to?’”

Concur clearly thinks it’s required. Its direct connect with Ryanair went live in October. In total, the latest version of Concur Travel provides content from 400-plus airlines via multiple channels – direct, GDS, TMC and NDC.

Concur’s mantra is simple: to get the right content to corporate travellers on consumer grade technology that they want to use, says Paul Dear, SAP Concur Vice President Global Supplier Strategy for EMEA. “Don’t be fooled by the people who are making it seem more complex,” he warns.

Nilo Sirinivasan, Sabre Director of Strategic Projects, believes it’s now time for the industry to move on and stop talking about who has what and instead focus on how NDC can be used to to improve travel experiences and create efficiencies for corporate travellers and agencies.

“The industry is at a turning point,” he says. “The focus should no longer be on who has which capabilities, but on how those capabilities are being used to create better experiences for travellers and better outcomes for travel resellers.”