Oman Air, the National Carrier of the Sultanate of Oman has received the level 4 New Distribution Capability (NDC) certification from International Air Transport Association (IATA). This comes in addition to Oman Airs’ existing level 3 NDC certification, making Oman Air one of the first airlines on the latest standard, NDC 18.2
New Distribution Capability (NDC) is a key transformation project, launched by IATA to modernize Airline distribution. The NDC Standard enhances the capability of communications between airlines and travel agents by enabling an airline to make sales offers directly in real time which will also permit airlines to both define and price their products in any way they wish.
Paul Starrs, Chief Commercial Officer of Oman Air said: “We are pleased to be one of the first airlines to receive Level 4 NDC Certification. With buy-in from major travel agencies, Aggregators and Online Travel Agencies (OTA’s) the NDC initiative at Oman Air is on a path from experimentation and testing to full-scale production. Our strategy is to shift the focus from capability to volumes and drive critical mass, and by expanding the NDC capability to more markets globally, we target to have significant transaction volumes via NDC connections during this year.
Oman Air controlled Offer and Order Management solution and the Travel Agency Portal from TPConnects, based on Level 4 NDC Schema 18.2, will enable Oman Air to introduce exclusive content on NDC channel to Travel Agents”, said Paul Starrs
NDC is the modernization of a 40-year old data exchange standard for ticket distribution developed before the Internet was invented. NDC is aimed at replacing the old EDIFACT protocol that has been around since the 1980s and used by Global Distribution Systems (GDSs).
Umesh Chhiber, Vice President – Revenue Optimization and Pricing, said, “The primary drivers for NDC at Oman Air is the revenue opportunity through the simple to use Travel Agent Portal and API’s for Online Travel Agents, Aggregators etc, that allows product differentiation, ancillary sales, dynamic pricing and exclusive content. Adopting NDC is unlocking value through our travel agent channel by providing them with features and exclusive content that is difficult to access today.
The travel agency community is evolving to adapt to new consumer’s needs, and thanks to opportunities brought by modern technologies. Oman Air have heavily invested in NDC enabled Offer and Order Management and Distribution through TPConnects and is geared up to meet the needs of our travel agency community to satisfy the changing expectations of how our consumers shop, book and pay, added Umesh.
