Emirates has taken the next step in its content distribution strategy.
In a message to its TMC partners, it said new ‘NDC price points’ will be made available from the UK in Economy Class from next month.
“It has been over two years since Emirates launched our Emirates Gateway New Distribution Capability (NDC) powered direct connect solutions in October 2020 and a significant amount of progress has been achieved during this time,” it said.
“Notably, we have achieved IATA ARM (Airline Retailing Maturity index) certification across the three flexible access solutions: Emirates Booking Portal, Emirates Gateway Sync and Emirates Gateway Direct.
“Our next step is to progressively roll out content differentiation via Emirates Gateway during the course of 2023 and as a first phase, new NDC price points will be made available from the UK in Economy Class from May 2 2023.”
The announcement comes as Air Canada also doubles down on its NDC journey and Air France/KLM also restrict some of their cheapest fares to NDC channels.
Air France/KLM said they would be withdrawing short and medium-haul ‘Light’ fares, which have a minimum stay requirement, from the traditional GDS channels in June.
Earlier this month American Airlines removed 40% of its fares from the GDS, prompting the US travel association ASTA to call for an anti-trust investigation.
The latest member survey by ITM found 60% of UK travel buyers feel their TMC is not adapting to changes in the distribution landscape, with 90% saying their travel policy does not allow travellers to book outside the TMC.
