IT solution provider, Airlines Technology, works closely on IATA’s affiliated New Distribution Capability (NDC) initiative. Smriti Kumar, co-founder, Airlines Technology, shares how the technology will transform the way air travel products are sold to leisure and business travellers. By Sudipta Dev
What are the key advantages of NDC – for a traveller, a travel agent, an airline, and other stakeholders?
For travellers the key advantages are – option to pre-book the services on travel portals; understanding differentiation amongst all flight facilities in minutest details; transparency in fares, facilities, services, etc. The travel agents benefit by access to complete onboard and ground services of airlines; selection, booking, check-in, and modification can be done on the OTA portal itself; additional incentives on selling ancillary services; giving complete breakup of the fare to travellers by providing final cost. For airlines, the benefits include higher customer retention with personalised offers; accelerating sale by multiple channel presence; dynamically showcasing the offerings on travel agent portal (with videos/ pictures/ detailed description); selling onboard services like Wi-Fi, food, legroom, entertainment, free or discounted class upgrades, etc, via OTAs; and better control on payments management (giving multiple financing options to travellers).
In which segment of the travel industry do you foresee quick implementation of this technology?
Aviation is the first adopter of NDC. Many airlines have already transformed their reservation systems to a NDC compliant one and many more are joining in. However, full implementation of this technology will take some time.
Do you have plans to engage with thousands of small travel agents across the country?
Yes, we have plans to engage with small travel agents. Our aggregator API will be open and free to use. Any OTA can use it by hooking it into its portal. We have plans to educate all travel agents about benefits of NDC and our aggregator.
What are the major implementations you are looking at in the airline industry (international and Indian)?
Today 70-75 per cent of airline reservations are managed through travel agents. Airlines are not able to sell ancillary services (Wi-Fi, food, lounge, preferred seats, boarding, etc) on OTAs. This results in huge revenue and opportunity loss for airlines. Consumers also don’t know what they deserve. They see only fares and schedule (time of flight ) on OTA portal and have to make choice from that. They don’t understand if two flights are offering same or similar price, which one will suit their needs best.
The key challenges in current scenario is that there is no direct link between airlines and OTAs and the data available is not real. Also, OTAs do not have rich content, personalisation and access which airline portals offer. Our aggregation service will be a direct link between airlines and OTAs or end users. One of the main aspects of our aggregator is personalisation, where dynamic offers will be given to users based on their past bookings or current details entered. On portals, travellers can see only the fare and schedule. This leaves a huge gap where airlines cannot sell their other onboard services like meal, preferred sitting, lounge access, entertainment of cho ice. Some are basic necessities like wheelchair, porter, etc. If you want those, you have to contact your airlines directly. With NDC, the end consumer will be able to shop and choose what he wants directly on the travel portal. This will lead to great travel experience/ planning and revenue for airlines. We will aggregate this rich content between airlines, third party vendors and travel portals.
How do you foresee the future evolution of this technology?
NDC will enable the travel industry to transform the way air products are sold to corporations, leisure and business travellers, by addressing the industry’s current distribution limitations: product differentiation and time-to-market, access to full and rich air content and finally, transparent shopping experience. NDC can be applied in any industry and seeing its revolutionary contribution in aviation I am sure other industries will also think about it.