ATPCO’s NDC Exchange allows more sales channeles
ATPCO announced the addition of new sales channels to NDC Exchange, the only neutral, industry-owned platform that connects the airline ecosystem and helps accelerate the adoption of airline retailing. Farenexus Group, FlightBridge, Onriva, and Winding Tree are new channels that are now in production with NDC Exchange, while Flyline and WellTravel will go live with airlines in the coming weeks. These channels join a growing community of organizations that are already in production with airlines such as Air Canada, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic.
"COVID-19 will continue to have dramatic effects on the airline industry, and recovery will likely be a long road ahead,” said Tom Gregorson, Chief Strategy Officer at ATPCO. “Implementing NDC Exchange reduces costs by offering plug and play connectivity to a wide range of services which are critical during the COVID-19 downturn, and at the same time help push airline recovery efforts forward.”
With NDC Exchange, integrations take weeks, not months since it eliminates the need for sales channels to develop and maintain multiple APIs or wait for airlines release schedules. This enables airlines to get new products and offers to market faster.
"The current climate provides the perfect opportunity to push technology forward and implement scalable tools that make connections easier,” said Graham Wareham, Director of Business Development and Partnerships at ATPCO. “The addition of these sellers to the NDC Exchange community reinforces our focus on making more NDC airline content available on more channels so that airlines have a more consistent product offering wherever travelers are buying their flights.”
ATPCO is also working with Farenexus to solve some real-life use case as proofs of concept (POC) initiatives that may ultimately become part of the NDC Exchange service. The POCs cover the inclusion of consolidator fares; inclusion of ATPCO’s Routehappy content to drive the Next Generation Storefront (NGS) calculation, and a centralized check-in service for interline tickets.
“Innovation is alive and kicking right now in the industry, and Farenexus Group couldn’t imagine partnering with any other organization but ATPCO to create solutions that maximize value for the industry,” said Ravi Kumar Panwar, CEO of Farenexus Group. “We are already exploring these concepts that can help the industry in recovery and beyond, and we’re excited by the possibilities.”
NDC Certifications NDC Exchange has achieved IATA NDC Level 4 certification, currently the highest level of the certification program available for IT providers. The certification reinforces NDC Exchange provides “Full Offer and Order Management.”
Air Canada also recently achieved [email protected] certification status by IATA; its NDC Gateway is managed by NDC Exchange. The certification means that Air Canada is compliant with a set of criteria and capabilities to drive higher volumes of NDC transactions. ATPCO’s common data model makes certification easy for an airline. “Partnering with ATPCO allowed us to achieve [email protected] certification quickly and simply,” said Keith Wallis, Senior Director Distribution and Payments at Air Canada. “We will now begin to leverage the full set of capabilities of ATPCO’s NDC Exchange and develop partnerships with all of the sales channels connected to the ecosystem, including the just announced new sellers.”
