Qatar Airways, Aer Lingus, Aeroflot and JR Technologies (JRT) are among the participants to test IATA’s NDC scheme.
NDC is a set of technology standards which will give airlines the ability to distribute all their content through third parties.
IATA claims NDC will enable the travel industry to transform the way air products are retailed to corporations, leisure and business travellers, by addressing the industry’s current distribution limitations: product differentiation and time-to-market, access to full and rich air content and transparent shopping experience.
“We are delighted to be the first Middle East airline to launch an NDC pilot,” said Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker.
“We believe that Qatar Airways will be able to benefit significantly from NDC features as this will enable us to better showcase the value of our five-star product offering to our passengers.”
This is the second NDC pilot for JRT. In 2013, JRT participated in pilots with American Airlines and Air New Zealand. This time, JRT will pilot a live implementation of an NDC Aggregator platform.
“We want to help all the players in the airline distribution value chain wrap their arms around NDC. We hope they will all benefit from this exercise” said George Khairallah, President of JRT.
Last month (May 22) The Department of Transportation (DOT) “tentatively” approved Resolution 787 – the foundation document for NDC.
The DOT said the development of NDC “would make it easier for consumers to compare competing carriers’ fares and ancillary products across multiple distribution channels”.
However, it insisted: “Consumers’ ability to shop anonymously must not be undermined.”
The NDC pilot programme was launched in 2013 with companies involving American Airlines, Air New Zealand, Hainan Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Swiss International Air Lines. Earlier this year, additional pilots were launched by Shandong Airlines and Air Canada.
Click here for a simple guide to NDC