New research from Business Travel Show reveals that more corporate travel buyers agree that new distribution capability (NDC) is a good thing than did a year ago.
The survey of 243 buyers shows that more than a third (35 per cent) regard NDC as a positive thing for the industry. This compares to just 11 per cent who said the same thing last year. Meanwhile, the number of buyers who disagree with the statement has dropped from 34 per cent to 27 per cent in the same period.
Further proving that buyers are warming to the idea of NDC as a good thing, 10 per cent said they’ve changed their opinion over the last 12 months.
However, there still appears to be a lot of confusion and uncertainty around NDC, with 39 per cent still unsure about it – but this is down from the 55 per cent of buyers that didn’t have an opinion either way last year.
When asked what impact they has seen from the introduction of new airline distribution, nearly one in five buyers (18 per cent) believed it offers more transparency with pricing. At the same time, one in five also said their prices had increased as a result.
The dust kicked up from the NDC shake-up seems to be settling too, with only 6 per cent of buyers saying they’ve switched carriers as a result of NDC – down from 10 per cent last year.
Meanwhile, 29 per cent said they haven’t noticed any impact and that their TMC handles everything for them.
Ian Luck, head of distribution at British Airways and Business Travel Show panellist, commented: “We have had significant engagement from buyers, TMCs, travel agents, corporate booking tools and technology providers over the last 12 months that is enabling us to ensure that the NDC capability we are building both addresses their concerns and looks at areas of common opportunity.”
Business Travel Show’s educational stream features a session on NDC entitled ‘The NDC revolution begins – triumph or disaster for your travel programme?’, which will take place from 1000-1100 on Wednesday, 21 February.
Business Travel Show takes place on 21-22 February at Olympia London. Register for free attendance at businesstravelshow.com/register