636 COMPETITION LAW IN TOURISM • The GDSs have all implemented NDC and have achieved NDC Certification as aggregators • Metasearch companies have embracedNDC, as they see it as an opportunity to improve their model and flow: the customer can complete its transaction while staying in the metasearch environment, instead of being redirected to an airline website (deep link). This improves conversion ratios. We have seen several of these deployments by airlines with Metasearch companies. Skyscanner and Kayak have both followed this path • TMCs are engaged to adopt NDC, however not all TMCs have the same level of readiness. Among the largest ones, HRG has made the most progress, building a platform that can aggregate content from different airline APIs. IATA implemented a GTEC, Global Travel Executive Council, to further engage TMCs • Online Booking Tools are also engaged, with for example Concur having recently announced they will access some NDC content via an aggregator The different flows are: • GDS legacy: is the current flow, whereby the GDS constructs the offer • GDS acting as aggregator: the GDS solely transmits information between the travel agent and the airline, it acts as a pure aggregator and does not construct offers or process the payment authorisation • Direct connect: the travel agent connects directly to the airline API (IT capability is required) Besides airlines, almost 60 travel technology vendors are building products and solutions based on NDC. 7.2. Enlarging the scope: NDC is a starting point for the transformation journey Initially, NDC has been focused mostly on ancillaries. However, it is very clear that carriers embracing NDC now have a much broader vision of the business benefits and are embarking upon a much more complete project. By building an Offer and Order Management system, they are putting in place the right framework to get full NDC benefits. There are numerous possible end results, and each carrier will decide upon the expected business benefits, transition complexity etc. So far, IATA has identified two broad strategies. The first focuses on improving customer value through efficient dynamic offers. Ultimately, the
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