Together, Let's Build Airline Retailing

NDC (New Distribution Capability) will enable the travel industry to transform the way air products are retailed to corporations, leisure and business travelers, by addressing the industry’s current distribution limitations: product differentiation and time-to-market, access to full and rich air content and finally, transparent shopping experience. ​​​​

The NDC program

NDC (New Distribution Capability) is a travel industry-supported program (NDC Program) launched by IATA for the development and market adoption of a new, XML-based data transmission standard (NDC Standard).

The NDC Standard enhances the capability of communications between airlines and travel agents.

The NDC Standard is open to any third party, intermediary, IT provider or non-IATA member, to implement and use.

The NDC Standard enables the travel industry to transform the way air products are retailed to corporations, leisure and business travelers, by addressing the industry’s current distribution limitations:

  • Product differentiation and time-to-market
  • Access to full and rich air content
  • Transparent shopping experience
 

For and by the travel industry​​

Airlines, travel management companies, online travel agencies, corporate buyers, global distribution systems and other technology players contribute to the NDC Standard. Through a collaborative approach, participants ensure that the supporting schemas are functional and can be used by all regardless of business focus, geographic location, size, target markets and individual commercial policies.

NDC Engagement platforms:

 

  • NDC Matchmaker - free on-line tool to Search, Compare & Connect with your NDC partners
  • AIR Tech Zone - forum to gather NDC implementers and developers

 

The power of standardization

An industry-standard will facilitate a more efficient airline distribution system, thereby benefitting airlines, agents, GDSs, IT providers and travel start-ups.

The NDC Standard provides the opportunity to address the end-to-end airline distribution process, e.g. shopping, booking etc., and to deliver enhanced customer experiences.​​​​

Governance

Bring your skills, knowledge and expertise and help with the development and adoption of the NDC Standard. Join the groups under the Shop-Order Board.

Broaden your knowledge

Learn more about NDC and what others have to say about it and sign up for the NDC Hub e-newsletter.

Official documentation

  • Standard presentation (pdf) (Mar 2020): A high-level introduction to NDC: why NDC, what is NDC, what has NDC achieved so far and what's next?
  • Fact Sheet (pdf) (Dec 2019): A one-pager on NDC: The NDC Program, the NDC Standard, and more
  • Resolution 787 (pdf) (Oct 2012): A copy of the IATA Resolution, supporting the NDC Program

White Papers

 

  • Airline Retailing: the value at stake by McKinsey & Company (October 2019)
  • Step on the Gas (pdf) (October 2019) Perspectives on the short and long term changes required to accelerate to a Future Managed Travel Program in a New Distribution Landscape
  • Scalability Report (pdf) (March 2019) Study to assess the industry’s readiness to address the look-to-book ratios challenges in an NDC environment
  • NDC Value for Agencies (pdf) (December 2018) to understand the main business drivers that can foster growth with NDC in the TMC environment
  • Time to Fly (pdf) (August 2018) provides travel managers views of the TMC value proposition in a new distribution landscape.
  • Taking the Reins (pdf) (July 2017) The story of how passionate Travel Managers created a vision of the future of business travel aviation in an NDC environment.
  • NDC Solutions White Paper (pdf) (Jan 2019) Overview of IT solutions using the NDC standard.
  • The Future of Airline Distribution 2016-2021 (pdf) (Oct 2016) Industry views on distribution trends based on interviews with industry players
  • Payment trends to watch (pdf) (Oct 2016) provides an overview of ongoing changes in the payment environment. This concerns new players, new technologies, change in regulation etc
  • Overview card payment current workflows (pdf) (Oct 2016) provides several workflows that enable to understand how card payment are handled in the current environment, who are the players...
  • Payment in an NDC environment (pdf) (Oct 2016) provides first findings on how future workflows could be modified to process more secured transaction in NDC environment, as well as to facilitate alternative payment forms.

Guides

  • Get started with NDC (pdf) (Oct 2019) how to build a business case, who to talk to, what to look out for, etc. A must-read if you are starting your journey to retailing.
  • NDC@Scale: Roadmap to Critical Mass (pdf) (Oct 2018) Support documentation for NDC stakeholders across the value chain through the new phase of volume growth.
  • TMC IT Architecture (pdf) (June 2018) provides a voluntary framework for TMCs to build a modular TMC IT infrastructure.
  • NDC Revenue Accounting Guide (pdf) (Aug 2016) - New support tool for airlines looking at implementing NDC offer & order management with suggested approaches to how Revenue Accounting processes may change.

 

At the IATA World Passenger Symposium in October 2017, IATA announced it was inviting airlines with strong aspirations to grow their NDC volumes rapidly, to join the NDC Leaderboard.

The benefits

IATA will provide support to the Leaderboard on related matters such as payment, architecture, schemas, workflows, etc. It will also provide greater support in the areas of engagement, adoption, technology and innovation.

IATA will also continue to support all its other members which choose to adopt NDC. These other airlines will also benefit indirectly from the Leaderboard. The push for critical mass will contribute to a rapid growth of the number of travel agents, corporate buyers and consumers using NDC.

IATA will share implementation roadmaps which will help speed up subsequent deployments. And finally, the push from the members of the NDC Leaderboard will help IT players to enhance their solutions and trigger innovation from new entrants– which will increase competition and speed to market for the followers.

Info pack

Learn more about the NDC Leaderboard (pdf).

How to join the Leaderboard

IATA welcomes additional member airlines with strong ambitions to contribute to an industry goal of having 20% of sales powered by an NDC API by 2020 to contact the NDC team directly through our contact form.

The NDC Messages are governed by the Shop-Order Standards Board under the Passenger Standards Conerence and managed by three specialised Industry Groups; the Offer, Order and Customer Payment Groups. These Groups, ensure the standard is maintained and improved each release. 

If you are an airline or strategic partner and would like to join the conversations and help set the standard, please contact standards@iata.org for more information. 

Standard Resources 

IATA Passenger Messaging Standards 

The NDC (Offer and Order) messages can be found within the standard IATA Passenger Messaging Standards. 

 

NDC Implementation Guide 

The Offer, Order and Customer Payment Group have created an implementation guide to aid implementers in using the NDC (Offer and Order) Messages. 

 

How to get started with NDC?

If you are an Airline 

 

Follow these 9 steps to start your NDC journey:

Contact us!

If you are a Travel Seller

 

Follow these 6 steps to start your NDC journey:

Business Travel focus:

Contact us!

If you are a Corporate Buyer

 

Follow these 6 steps to start your NDC journey:

Contact us!

 

Are you NDC certified?

IATA provides the only official industry certification program for NDC.

The certification process examines the capabilities of airlines, agents and aggregators to receive and send NDC messages, testing specific NDC solutions.

NDC Certification covers:

  • Airlines, Sellers and Aggregators – Any airline that deploys an NDC API or any seller or aggregator that consumes these APIs; and
  • IT Providers – Any vendor that offers NDC products and services for airlines and distributors can become NDC capable.

Access now the NDC Certification Registry to see who are the NDC certified /capable actors.

Documentation

Rise to the standard and apply for certification:

Sign up for certification now!

Changes to NDC certification

As the NDC standard moves towards critical mass , with all major stakeholders engaged, IATA is introducing changes to its NDC certification to better support the industry through this new phase of volume growth:

  1. Certification and renewal on a 36-month cycle of NDC schema versions
  2. Level 4 certification, full Offer and Order Management, which includes additional Servicing Messages (OrderReshop RQ/RS, OrderChangeNotif)
  3. "XML-Capable" Registration and new Level 1 certifications discontinued
  4. “NDC@Scale” certification for airlines: a set of criteria to demonstrate that airlines (and their IT providers) have a minimum set of recognized capabilities to drive volumes of NDC transactions towards 2020.

 

NDC InFocus is a series of two-page documents aimed at providing a quick overview of the NDC topics of the moment. Some of these topics may have been explained further through short webinars that can be found below. 

NDC InFocus documents

​​

NDC Leaderboard Airlines

​