The Business Travel Association has criticised the way airlines have adopted the New Distribution Capability (NDC), saying it has a negative impact on business travellers.
The BTA’s latest New Distribution Capability Review investigated the staggered adoption of the modernising airline retail programme.
It found that 50% of airlines are not currently certified on any standard of NDC, while only 23 of the 86 airlines who pledged to adopt the scheme have made the Iata leader board.
“Consequently, a functionality gap remains, involving issues such as personalisation, unused tickets, group bookings and interlining, ultimately negatively impacting the business traveller,” said the BTA.
Clive Wratten, chief executive of the BTA, said: “We are fully supportive of the transition to NDC as modernising airline retail is essential for the entire business travel community, but this fractured and disjointed approach is failing to deliver on expectations.
“Airlines must employ a collective customer-centric approach that streamlines with TMCs’ activities to sustainably grow the business travel sector and enable tangible change.”
The BTA review said travel management companies have made a “heavy financial and technological investment” and providing airlines with high-yield fares – but TMCs and business travellers has been “consistently penalised by the scheme, with promises unfulfilled by airlines”.
It also said that NDC prevents TMCs from business process improvement, while airlines and content aggregators benefit from a significant reduction in distribution costs.
The report comes as Iata prepares to release the latest version of the NDC standard, 21.3.