Earlier this year, talk of the International Air Transport Association's
New Distribution Capability standard and its deployment in the U.S. was getting
a lot of attention but more questions than answers. While GDSs had announced steps toward adoption
of the schema, showing they were "ready to be ready," a lack of
clarity on what to expect created a silence of sorts. That silence motivated progressive
TMCs to take charge of the NDC "threat" by informing themselves of
distribution transformations and figuring out solutions for themselves.
Then, quite unexpectedly at GBTA 2018,
press releases from GDSs proclaimed their wholehearted embrace of NDC, reinforcing
their commitment by taking the lead role in transformation, along with some TMCs
and airlines. In doing so, they positioned themselves as the solution to TMCs
worries around the problematic new standard, bringing on a collective sigh of
relief from TMCs. Everyone could go back to sleep. Problem solved. Or was it?
Fresh from the ATPCO Elevate 2018 and ARC TravelConnect conferences
in October, the looming changes in distribution are more than coming into
focus. They have been defined and are taking shape. A clear picture of NDC
impacts, without any fog, was laid bare for the industry to understand.
However, absent in all that clarity was exactly why there
should be any collective sigh of relief for TMCs—and for that matter, relief
for any company or process that relies on traditional aggregation and the
static, rules-based order we have come to rely on after decades of refining the
stable and predictable distribution ecosystem.
So, while the post-GBTA silence from TMCs is deafening to us
at TravelCast, activity toward NDC deployment has accelerated from all other
sides. To illustrate, below is a sampling of distribution-related BTN headlines
from the past three months:
For a wake-up call, just refer back to BTN's November
2017article GDSs,
Surcharges, TMCs, NDC, APIs: What the Heck Is Going On in Europe? There is an object lesson in what the article
goes on to explain. That is, the sudden seizing and control of content, in a
world without full content agreements, will shake the foundation of how
business is done. If you think the same can't happen here, think again.
And so, once again, the question arises: What does this all
mean? It means no one should be lulled to sleep by the notion that a deus ex machina salvation by any one
entity is going to resolve the imminent challenge of reinventing how a TMC
handles airline content. A TMC intending to continue growing and transforming its
business should best take charge of how to manage NDC content and not let any
one company decide how NDC will manage it. After all, moving from a one-size-fits-all,
order-taking environment into a contextual, dynamic, and targeted retailing
environment demands change with every transaction, not every three decades.