Travel Startups Incubator is has invested in Airlines Technology, which focuses on the New Distribution Capability (NDC) initiative spearheaded by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Founded to help airlines and travel agencies serve comparative content to travellers via the NDC initiative, Airlines Technology is an aggregator of available airline products and services.
According to IATA, NDC promotes the use of industry-wide standards for improving the sale of air travel-related products to consumers and businesses. Due to the shortcomings of trying to sell directly to travellers and corporations online, NDC was developed to help airlines promote their fares and services directly to purchasers.
Airlines Technology, one of the first vendors in the marketplace to achieve Level-3 NDC certification, is led by software developer and data warehousing specialist Paras Kumar, IT specialist Smriti Kumar and financial services specialist Varun Bansal. The team works closely with TSI advisor/mentor Daniel Friedli of Travel in Motion, Switzerland.
According to Bansal, he and his two Airlines Technology co-founders recognised early on that NDC would be a powerful force for change within the aviation industry. He said, “We are working hard to create a long-term sustainable technology platform that not only helps airlines’ top and bottom lines, but gives consumers more choices and a better overall experience.”
Paras Kumar added that airline partners will have the ability to return content to any requestor via the Airlines Technology aggregator through a network of select travel agencies and online booking engines. “Such content can include product descriptions, photos, audio, videos, as well as links to further product specifics. By using NDC, we will give airlines full control over how their products are bundled, priced, and presented. This will also give airlines the ability to adjust prices based on certain target audiences and other factors,” he said.
By allowing airlines to distribute content to more channels in a more flexible way, Airlines Technology will also empower them to shift their distribution to lower-cost channels. As a result, travellers will have access to more air travel-related offerings.
Matt Zito, managing partner, Travel Startups Incubator, commented, “Airlines Technology has a talented team of engineers and in a short period of time has built the beginnings of an aggregation platform for India OTAs and travel agencies to access the new NDC scheme. We are interested in investing in new technologies and business models. Airlines Technology’s new platform helps facilitate this movement.”
