A group of the world's leading airlines under the auspices of IATA is actively developing distribution under the new NDC protocol. According to plans announced earlier, by 2020 they are going to provide about 20% of sales volume under NDC. If they manage to achieve this, we can talk about good adoption of the protocol in the industry. On the other hand, traditional mechanisms will continue to be used to distribute the remaining 80% sales.
Experts from global technology company Sabre are confident that NDC brings value to airlines and the entire industry, but the transition to the new standard will occur through evolution, not revolution. For the foreseeable future, the market will operate on a hybrid distribution model. Even having successfully implemented NDC, air carriers will not necessarily abandon traditional mechanisms. Therefore, a layer of aggregators is needed between airlines and agencies that can combine NDC and traditional content and present it on one screen for easy comparison and booking.
NDC promises greater personalization of offers for the passenger. However, it is only a protocol for transmitting data, which in itself is not an innovation. According to Sabre experts, to realize the full potential of NDC for the travel ecosystem, it is necessary to create technology solutions that go beyond the protocol implementation and can provide integrated workflows for airlines, agencies and corporate customers.
Data management for comprehensive customer analysis (CRM)
The main characteristic of our multidimensional world is complexity. In the aviation segment, it is expressed, first of all, in the growth of the range of additional services and branded products. According to Sabre GDS, approximately 63 billion options are available daily on the route between New York and London, including fares, additional services and brands. Just a few years ago, this number was 5 billion.
The foundation for new search solutions is an analysis of passenger needs, which should not be limited to the profile from the loyalty program, as well as the integration of market, search and operational data of airlines in real time. Sabre is actively investing in the development of scalable solutions that allow us to provide not just correct, but truly “smart” results when searching for flights.
Intelligent management of airline offers
Traditionally, an airline product consists of seat availability, cost, and additional services, but today's passenger wants to personalize their travel. Some want a business lounge and Wi-Fi on the plane, others want a vegetarian meal and a window seat. The machine must be able to identify and control the issuance of offers based on the passenger's profile.
The hardest part is determining that the same person is looking for a flight, but with changed needs. For example, a business traveler’s main goal is to get to their destination as quickly as possible while staying within the corporate policy. If the same person is going on vacation with their family, a more economical fare with services for children will come to the fore.
This advanced level of personalization requires an intelligent platform that will centralize the creation of individual offers and sales channel management, as well as ensure control over order fulfillment.
Integrated order management and airline ticketing
An offer is only as good as the service. Imagine ordering a recommended product from an online store, only to have the package get lost in the mail. Or paying for a seat with extra legroom, only to miss your connecting flight due to a flight delay. In both cases, the offers were personalized, but the execution was disappointing.
“In any commerce strategy, retail must be integrated into the distribution and fulfillment processes. It is critical to engage the airline’s back-end system. This is the only way to ensure that the promised service is actually delivered to the customer,” said Katie Morgan, vice president of NDC at Sabre.
Any changes must be synchronized between the retailer, the airline, and the order management system that is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the offer: from creation to fulfillment. This requires a comprehensive solution for intelligent retail that will help simplify the integration process at the level of different suppliers and ensure that orders are fulfilled even in non-standard situations.
Integrated search for traditional, low-cost and NDC content
NDC only creates value for the travel ecosystem if all data (NDC content, traditional content, and low-cost carrier offers distributed via API) is properly aggregated, indexed, analyzed, and displayed. It is not commercially viable for agencies and metasearch engines to implement multiple direct connections with airlines rather than working with a few aggregators. This suggests that the role of the aggregator, traditionally the GDS, will become even more important.
Agencies and corporate clients need to maintain their current mid- and back-office processes and book services and manage content in the same way they do now. With this in mind, Sabre is working on a solution that will support seamless integration with the current platform so that customers can work effectively within a hybrid distribution model.
Next generation interfaces
Today, only 1 in 200 bookings made in indirect channels contain an ancillary. In direct channels, it’s 1 in 7. For airlines to increase ancillary sales, they need to achieve consistency in how content is displayed on their website, in their corporate and agency booking tools, in their sales agent interfaces, and in the APIs that are available to third-party developers.
This will require a comprehensive redesign of interfaces and a transition from classic screens to graphics so that all buyers can quickly navigate the variety of options and compare flights not only by airline and cost, but also by content. For example, the new Sabre Red Workspace platform, which features an intuitive graphical interface, is designed to help air carriers sell significantly more paid seats, baggage, insurance, business lounge vouchers and other services through agents.
More than NDC
As NDC is rolled out, there may be additional opportunities for product development. What is clear is that to fully operate in the new multidimensional world, market players need a comprehensive solution with broad functionality. It will help airlines increase sales through direct and indirect channels through smarter automation, agencies focus on products that influence choice, and passengers get the right flight at the right price. Creating such a solution requires a new approach that goes beyond NDC.
“Sabre’s Beyond NDC strategy brings next-generation retail, distribution and fulfillment technologies to life. Our deep data expertise, combined with our channel reach, uniquely positions us to reimagine retail across all areas of travel, enabling airlines and agencies to reach new heights and transform the consumer experience,” said Katie Morgan.
As part of the Beyond NDC program, Sabre has created a customer advisory board and is working to develop next-generation solutions to help the travel business evolve. The company has partnered with major carriers, including American Airlines, and leading agencies, including CWT, American Express, and Flight Center Travel Group. Sabre plans to launch a test environment for new NDC-based APIs as early as December 2018. Feedback from test partners will help accelerate the time-to-market of integrated solutions that enable effective NDC operations.
The article is based on the research “NDC based on Sabre”. Full text of the research: http://your.sabre.com/NDC-eBook-RU
Source: trn-news.ru