Seoul-based travel tech startup NUUA has become the first South Korean specialist of its kind to be adopted by Singapore Airlines (SIA) as an aggregator for NDC content.
NUUA, founded in 2012, is the first South Korean company and the seventh system provider in the world to acquire the Airline Retailing Maturity (ARM) index Certificate from IATA, and its NDC solution is said to be one of the fastest in the market, moving five to six times faster than other providers.
NUUA is now rolling out its NDC-based flight booking engine, which could herald the next era of competitive pricing for airline-related transactions. This is aligned with IATA’s goal for all airline-related transactions to be run by NDC APIs by 2030.
Kwak Jay, COO of NUUA, told TTG Asia that his company’s technology would supplement SIA’s existing technology partnerships.
Both NUUA and SIA has much to gain from this arrangement, noted Kwak.
“When SIA introduces its NDC capabilities at meetings and to potential clients in South Korea, it lists NUUA as its partners. For us, when we approach clients, we list SIA to emphasise our capabilities and our business expansion into Singapore,” he said.
NUUA enjoys support from the Korea Tourism Startup Center (KTSC), which has provided it with platforms to interact with Singapore’s travel industry. KTSC’s Opening Ceremony and Demo Day on August 31 as well as the KTSC Tourism Boot Camp from August 30 to September 2 exposed NUUA to prospective investors and clients.
Moving forward, NUUA is working with travel-based businesses in Singapore as well as airline companies across the world to roll out its scalable and adaptable AI-based software suite, which could help travel agencies and enterprises with travel management systems to save up to 80 per cent in labour and operation costs.
Kwak expressed high hopes for traction in the region.
“Singapore is the main centre for the travel industry in Asia. We are confident that the infrastructure and system improvements we bring to Singapore’s travel ecosystem, and that result in an improved travel experience with effective cost reductions, will be an industry standard for the region to follow,” he said.
