Accelya, the market leader in developing NDC capabilities for airlines and travel agencies, said that its NDC volume more than doubled last year. Its live customers include American, United, Lufthansa and several others, with Delta in development. Overall, the NDC share of ARC-settled bookings last year was 20.3%, mostly from OTAs. Airlines editor Robert Silk spoke with Accelya chief customer success officer Tye Radcliffe about why he's bullish on NDC, despite continued hesitation from many travel advisors.
Tye Radcliffe
Q: Adoption of NDC has been slow, in particular by the corporate travel community but also by leisure agencies. Do you see that changing?
A: We've talked about having 146% growth year over year in corporate bookings made through TMCs. We're seeing significant growth, especially among new players doing creative things with new technologies. And we're seeing growth in the GDSs, too, and traditional TMC players. There are misconceptions out there about what NDC can and cannot do. So education is a big part of that.
Q: What is driving growth? NDC consultant Cory Garner argues that agencies need to be pulled along to switch to NDC or else the economic incentive isn't there for them. But American, the big disrupter, abandoned that strategy last year.
A: There is now content coming through NDC that is meaningful. Continuous pricing puts content out there. It's really a great way to enable airlines to get right to what they want to charge, and you can't do that with legacy technology.
Q: Do you have a sense of how many airlines are doing continuous pricing?
A: I don't think it is more than a handful. There are some very interesting ancillary bundles that you make available in NDC that you can't do in the Edifact [legacy technology] world. When you can present those as an offer and give entitlements or a discount based on a certain tour code, that is really powerful to a corporation. These corporations have finally understood the power of NDC.
Q: What's your NDC adoption forecast for this year?
A: Sabre, Amadeus and Travelport are working really hard to bring NDC to their travelers, and that is a watershed moment. Once the agencies feel like the GDSs are giving them what they need, I think you'll see a ton of volume come through there. To me, that's the valve that you want to open.
Q: There have been many concerns about NDC servicing. Is it getting better?
A: Absolutely. Especially with new players, or ones embracing new technology, like Spotnana, Navan and Amtrav, they have been able to figure out how to work around any perceived challenges. The TMCs that are sitting around waiting for the GDSs to deliver NDC to them, they are able to transact, too. I would say that the GDSs have a road map of capabilities that they are making available, and maybe they are not able to deliver quite as quickly as some of these folks that have dedicated teams that build quickly and release, but we're getting there.
Q: Where are the three biggest GDSs lacking still?
A: They all have shopping and booking. It's some of the more finite servicing-type capabilities that the agencies are waiting for to make their lives easier. In 2023, Amex GBT came out with a list of 100-plus capabilities that the GDSs needed in NDC. There are just certain things that folks like Amex are waiting to get finished. But we're nearly there.
Q: What's an example of something from that list that the GDSs need to solve?
A: Sometimes it's transaction speed. Imagine, I'm giving you a lot more content and interesting stuff, and sometimes it takes longer to ask the machine to put together the bundles. We're trying to optimize that workflow and response time.
Clarification: Acceyla has realized 146% growth year over year in corporate bookings made through TMCs. An earlier version of this article did not note that the growth was in corporate bookings.