Travelport has begun handling its first bookings with Qantas using IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard, as part of its continuing support for the airline’s NDC, including the Qantas Distribution Platform (QDP).
The bookings are made through Travelport Smartpoint in a live production test environment as Qantas prepares distribution of differentiated NDC content from late 2019.
This NDC connection to Qantas is the first by any GDS to the carrier and enables live bookings of NDC content to be made by selected agency partners taking part in the testing programme, including ATPI Corporate Travel, Globetrotter and Travel Beyond. It comes ahead of a rollout to the wider agency community in the coming months.
The development is part of the airline’s plans for the QDP which offers an improved customer experience via enhanced and personalised content.
Having been the first GDS to make a live NDC booking in October 2018, Travelport has already connected to five European airlines’ NDC content, said the travel technology company in a statement. It will follow up with an API NDC connection channel through Travelport’s Trip Service API with Qantas’ content among the first to be available through this channel. The Trip Service API is also currently part of a testing programme with an Australia-based OTA successfully coding to it.
Scott Barber, managing director Australia and New Zealand at Travelport commented: “Qantas shares our vision that NDC has the potential to enhance the travel experience for its customers, offering personalised and differentiated choice and a seamless booking experience. NDC delivery is complex and requires collaboration from all parts of the travel industry.
He added: “We value our relationship with Qantas and are grateful to our test agencies for partnering with us to ensure we deliver an NDC solution which makes the process of buying and managing travel continually better for everyone. The ongoing delivery of our NDC roadmap is a key part of this.”
The airline industry has been developing NDC since 2012 with the aim of extending customisation to agents and establishing closer relationships between airlines and customers.
