Further to its partnership announcements last week, Amadeus has confirmed BCD Travel and American Airlines have committed to its NDC-X programme.
The TMC and airline join Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) and American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), which both signed on to the programme last week.
BCD Travel will use Amadeus’ solution to test and familiarise itself with the ‘shop, order, pay’ flow of NDC. Amadeus says this will help it prepare to implement an industrialised version of the solution, which will include servicing capabilities, in 2019.
Amadeus says through its partnership with American Airlines, it hopes to ensure NDC content is easy to access and compare so TMCs and agencies can serve travellers efficiently. The two companies have been working together on NDC for several years.
The NDC-X programme brings together all NDC initiatives across Amadeus to work with several airlines and agencies to drive adoption of the new standard.
Amadeus renewed its Level 3 status as an IT provider in June and became the first company to also achieve Level 3 as an aggregator, meaning it can demonstrate the ability to execute offer and order management.
Gianni Pisanello, VP of the NDC-X programme at Amadeus, commented: “The momentum we are gaining with NDC-X is second to none. We have our eyes firmly fixed on industrialisation next year, and partnering with BCD Travel means we are moving forward in the right direction together with our customers.”
Thane Jackson, VP of global distribution and channel strategy at BCD Travel, said: “Our aim is to provide a seamless customer experience that drives the booking, spend management and security processes that add value to client programmes. We, along with the entire industry, will benefit from the programme’s focus on practical NDC use cases in a test-and-learn environment to deliver improved capabilities.”
Alison Taylor, SVP of global sales and distribution at American Airlines, added: “NDC technology brings the same great content and product offerings available to customers on AA.com to travel professionals and their customers. Amadeus’s NDC-X programme represents a great opportunity to work with leaders across the travel industry, including corporate managed travel, to bring American’s NDC content to Amadeus. It’s exciting to be working with long-term partner Amadeus on this strategic project to take NDC to the next level.”
amadeus.com; aa.com; bcdtravel.com