Yesterday at the TravelTech Show in London we’ve taken the pulse of airline distribution. The audience included travel buyers and travel management companies who were curious to hear about airlines’ progress with offers and orders.
With me on the panel:
- Nicola Ping – Flight Centre Travel Group
- Julian Meersse – Lufthansa Group Airlines
- Grégoire Echalier – TTI
- Moderated by: Lee Hayhurst – Aviation Business News
As per the agenda we expected to talk about:
- Big changes in NDC and the “tipping point”
- New strategy by Ryanair dealing with Kiwi, an OTA and Kyte
- How payments evolve with distribution
- The future impact of AI and blockchain
- The role of the GDS in this new world
If I can pick three points from our discussions:
- The debate has moved from “why” and “when” to “what” and “how”. Julian Meersse shared the 2030 timeline of Lufthansa Group for Offers and Orders. I explained our role at Threedot in supporting airlines, travel agents and technology companies in this transition to digital retailing.
- Offer personalization: I was asked to pick a use case in the corporate space. I gave the example of an airline and a corporate negotiating a special deal with specific benefits per type of staff. How long does it take to implement the agreement in a GDS with filed fares? Can NDC and dynamic pricing help reduce the timeframe from one year to one month or one week or one day?
- Order servicing: I reacted to the pain point of servicing NDC bookings. Technology solutions exist today, as showcased at the event, where travel agents can automate post-booking activities for NDC bookings with the same features as in a GDS. So what is slowing down the implementation of such solutions?
