NDC: Update on Progress, Change Management Group, Schemas, Deployment and More...

By Yanik Hoyles

You will find a roundup of the latest news and developments in the NDC program in the following update.

A New Framework to Manage the Evolution of the NDC Schemas

On 13-15 January, IATA hosted the first meeting of the Change Management Group. This new working group has been established to monitor, review, validate and implement requested changes to the NDC business requirements and ultimately to the NDC recommended schemas, prior to submission to PADIS. Once the PADIS approval is completed change management will be under the responsibility of the PADIS group.

For this first edition, eleven industry representatives from airlines, technology providers and travel trade gathered in Montreal to review the change requests log, resulting in the release of version 1.1.3 of the NDC schemas (see below).

Version 1.1.3 of the NDC Schemas

This new version of the NDC schemas incorporates feedback that the Change Management Group received from various industry reviewers and users, including major airlines, system providers, and other organizations that are participating in NDC pilots and in PADIS. It brings a number of technical and functional enhancements in the areas of calendar shopping, change of gauge, long sell, checked and hand baggage allowance, seat availability and selection, to name a few.

The version 1.1.3 is a ‘milestone’ version and as such, will be submitted to PADIS for review and validation during PADIS Messaging Week in March.

Please feel free to download the version 1.1.3 of the NDC schemas.

New NDC Deployment Projects Under Way

Late last year, we were delighted to welcome Qatar Airways to the growing community of NDC’s early adopters. In cooperation with Amadeus, Qatar Airways is testing a number of the Shopping schemas, which will lead to a full-fledge pilot project with selected Amadeus-connected travel agents. The airline is scheduled to go live during the third quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, China’s Hainan Airlines and Shandong Airlines, together with their technology partner Travelsky, have launched phase three of their respective deployment projects, both upgrading to the version 1.1 of the NDC schemas.

During phase three, Hainan Airlines will continue to reinforce the distribution of rich content for their domestic product as well as to carry on testing codeshare scenarios. Hainan Airlines was the first airline to have successfully tested the schemas in a codeshare environment.

Meanwhile, Shandong Airlines will continue to explore the benefits of rich content for the distribution of their recently launched ‘Super Economy Cabin’.

Playlists Dedicated to NDC Available on YouTube

Lastly, please be aware that you can now find all NDC-related videos under NDC-specific playlists in IATA’s YouTube Channel.

§  In the ‘NDC – Program’ playlist are posted all the videos that explain selected aspects of the NDC program;

§  The ‘NDC – Airlines’ playlist regroups testimonials from airlines that have chosen to endorse and adopt NDC;

§  Any demos of the conceptual and real products developed by our technology partners will be available in the ‘NDC – Demos’ playlist.

Mark Your Calendar for an NDC Webinar This Month

On 24 February at 13:00 GMT, Airlines International will host a webinar where:

§  IATA will discuss the latest developments in the NDC program as it moves into its deployment phase;

§  SWISS and their technology partner Datalex will share their findings from their NDC pilot project.

If you wish to attend this free webinar, please register online.