NDC adoption is on the rise in 2023. More than one in 10 travel agent sales are coming from NDC interfaces. Many airlines have recently implemented content through NDC, and a growing number of global suppliers are offering direct connect options to agencies. American Airlines also recently informed travel agencies that they will need to be connected to NDC by April to receive full access to the airline’s third-party content. Providing the enriched experience of NDC requires significant investment from airlines and agencies, with numerous supporting technologies knitting a travel journey together. As NDC continues to grow, corporate buyers deserve full visibility into the economics and how money flows between their program partners to measure the value their organization and travelers are deriving.

Many travel stakeholders have been reluctant to embrace NDC because they have not seen the efficiencies and savings immediately. There remains some confusion in pockets of the agency and travel manager communities about what it is, and the benefits to both suppliers and buyers. But NDC investments will pay off, and travel managers should expect lower costs over time as solutions move from introductory stages to maturity.

Setting some cost questions aside—and I’ll get back to those in a minute—NDC has more to deliver for travel programs. Travel managers should realize more transparency and control as they harness NDC-derived data in 2023 to inform their travel policies and programs. They will need this as travel becomes a more integrated piece of workforce engagement and management this year.

Connecting the Dots

Many organizations are working to define what the “next normal” is—whether it’s mandating a certain number of days in the office or determining the frequency of bringing together teams that are now more physically distributed. It is clear, however, that business travel will be a key component of organizations’ strategies in 2023.

Corporations should realize there’s an opportunity to leverage business travel policies to significantly influence employee recruitment and retention, and to shape a new employee experience, especially for those who work remotely. And the travel experience itself matters. According to a study by GBTA and Sabre in 2022, 84 percent of North American workers said the quality of their work-related travel influences their business results.

This is where NDC will begin to come into play, empowering travel managers with better offerings, new pricing strategies and better data and insights to design and manage programs as they gain more influence within their organizations.

NDC will allow corporations and airlines to work together to design customized solutions and content for employees, including bundled offers tailored to a travel program or traveler, or options that make booking and expensing travel easier. Employees who can tailor their travel comfort and expense their travel easily will be more efficient, more loyal to their company and less likely to burn out over the repetitive tasks of managing travel.

As suppliers introduce increasingly dynamic and continuous pricing, which they have said will be powered by NDC, travel managers also have an opportunity to ensure they are getting the best prices possible. United Airlines has indicated that they have lower price points they are willing to sell, but until recently, their technology has limited the ability to offer those prices. With NDC technology supporting new ways of doing business, travel managers should engage their suppliers about their pricing and technology strategies and capabilities to understand how they can take advantage of all available content and at what price.

Additional transparency around pricing is needed so employees and corporate leaders understand the true costs of their travel, giving them confidence that their business travel decisions drive a significant return on investment. Suppliers will need to create offers through NDC that benefit both their business and their corporate travelers. To adapt an example from Duffel: If a customer flies from Chicago to New York every month and regularly pays for business class when the price difference from economy is less than $200, the airline can consistently offer the traveler a business class upgrade for under $200.

In all of this, the broader sharing of data—including current and forward-looking data—is key. TMCs and technology partners will need to help corporations manage employee travel duty of care, ensuring that travel managers can locate their travelers at any moment, and have full visibility into upcoming travel, regardless of the booking channel. Suppliers and travel managers need the complete picture of their travel transactions to drive decisions, and NDC helps provide the travel ecosystem with a less fragmented view.

Travel managers have an opportunity to seize the moment. Those who build programs on a principle of transparency and seek trusted data to derive insights will be well-positioned to drive more value for their organization and elevate the importance of their role. And traveler managers’ increased influence has the potential to accelerate positive change in the broader travel ecosystem, driving more collaboration across the industry.