About NDC

IATA, or the International Air Transport Association, developed NDC or the New Distribution Capability, an XML-based communication standard for airlines enabling them to deliver content and ancillaries right into the travel agents’ screens. The new NDC replaces EDIFACT, or the Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce, and Transport Protocol, which has operated since the 1980s. With this, the travel industry will be able to revamp the way air journeys are sold to customers completely.

Information Flow and Transparency

Conventional booking processes were intervened by a GDS using bits and pieces of flight information such as flight availability through the airline CRS, fares from the ATPCO repository and schedules from the OAG database. The entire procedure has now been simplified with the NDC that helps carriers gain control of information dissipation or even modify product offerings to meet customer preferences and existing market demand. Besides, traditionally, GDSs and OTAs obtained data from intermediaries, and airlines could obtain customer information only through these manual channels, eliminating all transparency. NDC APIs changed all that, opening an entirely new avenue where information transfer became extremely easy, and OTAs could avail of more and better airline information.

Advantages of NDC APIs

Over the course of its existence, NDC has become a widely-accepted standard due to its ability to satisfy a number of airline criteria, thus bettering retailing. As it bestows renewed strengths to information distribution, the protocol also allows carriers to accelerate product innovation for the end user across various channels.

Retailers can expect significant changes with the integration. The new paradigm transcends functional constraints imposed by individual airline APIs and encourages the extension of current use cases. Digital travel shops can improve their alternatives and provide more travel-centric and traveller-focused choices to enhance customer experience. Besides, the time to respond to customer queries is drastically shortened using NDC APIs.

Travel providers can source NDC-related content without airline-based restrictions across all traffic generation channels. They can sync their marketing initiatives with airline capacity in a way that encourages potential clients to subscribe and participate on social media.

It’s a Win-Win

Everyone benefits from the NDC API – the travel agencies, airlines and customers. Pratra’s expert technologists apply the NDC API integration, which serves as the foundation of a communication model that offers several rewards. OTAs get access to the entire product range, including ancillaries and promotions. At the same time, airlines can distribute their services and products in the most appealing way possible and even increase the information available on each of them. Ultimately, the end customer gets an all-encompassing and better shopping experience giving them the flexibility to choose between preferences.