NDC Update
ACTA continues to work through the details of the NDC model with IATA through the Coalition of National Travel Agent Associations . We are collaborating on a study to look at options that could benefit travel agents as the New Distribution Capability (NDC) XML standard is considered for implementation by airlines and technology providers.
The study will evaluate the issues from the perspectives of large, medium and small agencies, including both business- and leisure-travel focused agencies. It will also seek the views from key stakeholders across the distribution value chain such as airlines, global distribution systems, travel technology firms, and providers of corporate booking tools. We are waiting for details of the survey to become public and once they are available will be shared for your information. The following NDC update was released by IATA:
By Yanik Hoyles, IATA's Director for NDC
Nine more airlines to jump on the NDC bandwagon
While the industry was in Miami for our Annual General Meeting last month, we announced that nine of our members had committed to participate in pilots and live deployments to test and evaluate the NDC schemas.
After Aer Lingus, American Airlines, British Airways, Heli Air Monaco, Qatar Airways, Scoot, Shandong Airlines and TUIfly.com, we are delighted to welcome Avianca, China Southern Airlines, Hong Kong Airlines, GOL, InselAir, Lufthansa, Qantas, SWISS and Ukraine International Airways as our latest NDC pilots and adopters.
Since this announcement, two of these airlines have shared some information on their pilot or deployment projects, which they have agreed to disclose publicly.
China Southern Airlines
In 2013, China Southern Airlines was one of the first carriers to pilot NDC’s Shopping schemas, in cooperation with Ctrip and TravelSky. For its first pilot, the airline’s goal was to validate the ability to distribute existing flight products using the new standard.
China Southern has already begun migrating to the later schema version, targeting to complete an end-to-end deployment by October 2016. During this second phase, the airline will continue to work with TravelSky and Ctrip to distribute their flight products.
Ukraine International Airways
Together with their partner trip top technologies, Ukraine International Airlines plans to test and implement NDC’s Shopping schemas, for the distribution of flight and ancillary products. In a second phase, the airline will expand the scope of its deployment project to NDC Order Management and become among the first airlines to use the NDC standard to its widest extent.
In this project, trip top technologies will act as an aggregator and manage airline profile data on behalf of Ukraine International Airways.
OTHER NEWS
BA releases its NDC-based Shop and Order API to the developer community
Last week, British Airways announced the release of its Developer Portal through which it is providing access to three Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that will allow developers access to content and data to build new channels for customers to search for flights, prices and to complete bookings.
One of these is the ‘Shop and Order’ API which has been built using the NDC schemas. It is open to IT experts from all sectors of the travel industry from start-ups to travel agents and GDSs, who wish to form part of an NDC pilot with the airline.
IATA hosts two more NDC IT Regional Workshops
Following our first workshop in Miami at the end of May, the NDC team recently hosted two similar workshops in Singapore and Geneva, targeting Asia-Pacific and EMEA-based airlines.
Attended respectively by 32 and 23 airlines, these workshops provided the opportunity for 15+ technology vendors to describe their plans and pitch their upcoming NDC-based solutions in the areas of offer and order management, and of agency distribution.
Tnooz and IATA join forces to organize a NDC hackathon
Tnooz and IATA have partnered to encourage collaboration in the travel tech development community and will host THack @ Hamburg 2015 ahead of this year’s World Passenger Symposium (October 20-22).
THack @ Hamburg is a weekend hackathon that focuses on creating applications and tools to enhance airline passengers' travel experience and explore new airline merchandising opportunities. THack will showcase IATA's NDC data transmission protocol through sandbox APIs, and also will feature sponsor APIs from the broader travel marketplace.
Developer teams from travel suppliers, technology solutions, mobile app builders and student developer communities are encouraged to register and create applications that enhance the traveler experience. Details on registration, prizes and competition rules will be announced soon.
THack will be held Saturday and Sunday, October 17-18 at a location in Hamburg to be announced. The results of the hackathon will be shared as part of the World Passenger Symposium.
Companies interested in sponsoring THack by including their API in the competition should contact Ella Sopp (Tnooz EMEA, esopp@tnooz.com) or James Craven (Tnooz Americas, jcraven@tnooz.com).