A GLOBAL AND LEGAL OVERVIEW OF TRAVEL AGENT REPRESENTATIVES 583 and NDC. NDC is not an option for travel agents, at less at the current time, but IAG (without a real option for TA) is penalising bookings made through GDSs with a charge of 16€ for fare component (take note: for fare component not booking), much higher than the amount they pay to the GDS per booking... Therefore, according to our Board, we have made statements denouncing that NDC is not, at the current time, an option and that NDC is nothing more than a strategy of transferring to the agencies the costs of distribution and segmenting the market (discriminating between agencies). Just a different approach”. 5. Mr Larry Lo, Chairman of the Society of IATA Passenger Agents (SIPA, Ltd.), said: “NDC development in Asia still slow, and local IATA office has no influence so far, driving force mainly come from LH group by offering exclusive fare and discount. Our association lined up with key travel agents to defense the NDC. For the home base Cathay Pacific is not ready to push up to now, but it’s a matter of time. In general speaking, majority of agents not support NDC in our market”. 6. Mr Hamzah Rahmat, Executive Director of the Federation of ASEAN Travel Associations (FATA), responded, as follows: “Likewise, the same in ASEAN countries. It is a non event. It was brought up a few years ago but sizzled out and now, I believed, had died a natural death here in ASEAN. No one is talking about it. (…) There is a latest development in Singapore. Just recently Singapore Airlines is pushing very hard in Singapore on the NDC matters”. 7. From the Korea Association of Travel Agents (KATA), the response was by Mr Sa Woon Hong, Director, Air & Agency Coordination of the association, who contributed with the following words: “KATA and IATA had a joint presentation several years ago about what was NDC. Since then, there has been no noticable development in Korean market. Local IATA staff says it would take time, and no further development happens. A few airlines and global OTA say that they would introduce NDC soon, but there had been little impact so far.”.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==