Ai Video: Assessing the role of GDSs in meeting the NDC 20-20-20 target

24th April, 2019 

There are several ways to market with NDC. Options include a direct connect, via a GDS, a non-GDS aggregator, a meta-search engine and a message hub.

The role of GDSs in pushing the NDC standard forward is being assessed. Considering the fact that 21 airlines have committed that by the end of 2020, 20% of their indirect sales will be made using NDC, this makes the situation interesting.

“GDSs have lot of advantages – their experience, content, capability plus scalability, reliability and speed. GDSs are moving at a certain pace now. There is a sense of urgency (at this juncture),” says Philip Saunders, former Vice President, Air Commerce, EMEA, Travelport. “At the same time, there is space for others in this (distribution) mix.”

For travel agents, booking NDC content is a modification to their customary ways of working. Travelport acknowledges that by making NDC content available, it is providing access to greater choice with NDC content which can be combined with ATPCo content in a familiar workflow. Sabre states that rich NDC content only delivers value to the ecosystem if all the shopping data (NDC, traditional and low-cost carrier APIs) is properly aggregated, indexed, analyzed and delivered. This means the role of the GDS has never been more valuable to the travel ecosystem, highlights Sabre.

Even as the industry accepts that both traditional and NDC content is going to co-exist for years, one positive aspect is that this standard is going to facilitate new entrants into the distribution sector, resulting in increased competition.

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