Exactly 3 years ago I published an article in the online magazine Travelforbusiness.it with this title: NDC (New Distribution Capability) an enemy or an opportunity?
If you want you can read it by clicking on the title and discover even today how current it is. The question then was whether the TMCs were ready to take up this challenge but perhaps due to the pandemic the challenge was not taken up. To tell the truth, even the airlines on their part seem quite confused but I believed in this new distribution model which is a bit like the one launched by the low cost airlines if you think about it: selling flights and tickets directly from their websites. ancillary services making every single trip customizable.
The paradox is that today low-cost airlines try to enter the agencies' distribution network through GDSs and that traditional companies, on the contrary, try to sell the product directly without the intermediation of GDSs.
Given that I always like to analyze data and finding that in Italy the volume of low-cost flights has far exceeded traditional airlines (65% of national air traffic), I am firmly convinced that the NDC sales model will be successful.
The first absolute advantage is the reduction in travel costs: to give a practical example, a Rome-Frankfurt-Rome flight which on average costs around 350 euros can cost even 100 euros less if purchased through NDC.
The second advantage is represented by the management of the booking directly by the traveler: a ticket purchased with NDC is easily managed by the traveler via the airline's website and therefore gives the possibility of personalizing the trip according to one's needs, contributing significantly to the concept of Bleisure.
To date, Alma Travel is the TMC in Italy with the largest number of airlines connected with NDC and this thanks to the help of the AirGateway which allows you to compare prices between traditional GDS and NDC, always providing the travel solution suitable for the customer .