In the context of aviation, NDC stands for New Distribution Capability. It is a technical standard published by IATA, the airlines’ association, that supports airline sales via travel agencies.
The standard is in the implementation phase. The first NDC adoption milestone was in 2020 when airlines representing 20% of ticket sales had implemented the capability. The second milestone was in 2022 when IATA announced that 10% of global transactions were enabled by the NDC standard.
As per the article below (behind paywall), the volume of NDC transactions in the US (according to ARC) has also exceeded 10%.
I remember that in 2004, when e-ticket transactions were at 10% (the remaining 90% were paper tickets), IATA launched a program to sunset paper tickets and reach 100% e-tickets by 2007 (which happened eventually in 2008). Is the industry ready for a 100% NDC target by 2027 (or 2028)?
