Global travel technology company Amadeus  and International Airlines Group (IAG) have partnered to drive advanced travel retailing through NCD (new distribution capability), a travel industry-supported program.

Through the agreement, content from IAG operators, including British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling, will be made available for travel sellers, agents and corporations through the Amadeus Travel Platform via Amadeus’ NDC-enabled solutions.

British Airways and Iberia NDC connections to Amadeus are targeted for the second half of this year, with Vueling following in 2022. Further information about Aer Lingus implementation will follow in due course, an Amadeus statement said.

This agreement is another milestone in Amadeus and IAG’s strategy to embrace digital retailing practices. It allows for an improved user selling experience and access to current and future personalized offers such as, Additional Price Points (continuous pricing).

“This is an important moment for the travel industry as we welcome one of the world’s leading airline groups into our NDC family. We are proud to have deepened our partnership with IAG, which will unlock new retailing capabilities and push forward global NDC adoption,” said Javier Laforgue, Executive Vice President of Airline Distribution & Content Sourcing at Amadeus.

"NDC and the integration in the Amadeus Travel Platform will equip IAG to reach our industry’s new opportunities and meet changing traveller needs head-on. This agreement once again reinforces the value of our technology and collaborative approach across the industry to bring NDC to scale.”

Rogier Van Enk, Head of Distribution at British Airways, said: “NDC is the future of retailing for our industry and we’re excited about the possibilities that it is enabling. It is encouraging to see key players in the travel ecosystem like Amadeus sharing this vision by supporting the rollout of NDC. This deal will create more choice for our trade partners, including personalized content and new exciting offers to come in the future.”

Cliff Trotta, Head of Distribution at Iberia added: “This groundbreaking agreement sets the stage to change our industry. It is exceptional in many ways: for travel partners, this means access to competitive fares and a suite of exclusive NDC products; for Amadeus, this means a strengthened partnership and leadership in the development of a multi sourced technology platform; for Iberia, this means continued customer-focused innovation, featuring our pioneering NDC content.”

Both organisations have already started to work on the integration of IAG’s NDC content into the Amadeus Travel Platform. This will ensure that agents worldwide will be able to search, compare, book, and service IAG NDC content in one merged display through their go-to Amadeus solution.

This agreement is another important milestone for NDC’s adoption across the industry. Now more than ever, there is a need for more scalable end-to-end solutions that are thoroughly integrated into the travel seller’s ecosystem to ensure NDC bookings can be made and serviced efficiently. – TradeArabia News Service