The Biz at BTN Podcast · Business Travel News

NDC Ecosystem Update 2024 Part 1 Airlines & Aggregators

·43 min

1. The Biz at BTN Podcast episode is a supplier-side update on NDC, EDIFACT, and airline retailing across American Airlines, Amadeus, and Accelia. 2. Michael Baker, BTN Executive Editor, opens the series; Donna Iroldi, BTN Senior Editor of Transportation, leads the panel; Neil Guerin, Jay Richman, and Ty Radcliffe bring airline, GDS, and aggregator perspectives. 3. The episode asks what slows NDC adoption, what still breaks in the workflow, and what the industry needs before One Order arrives. 4. Baker ties the discussion to BTN’s three-part special report and American Airlines’ decision to pull a large portion of fares out of traditional EDIFACT channels. 5. Guerin says American has been pushing NDC growth for at least 15 years and now sees some channels as too difficult for corporate customers that rely on agencies and booking tools. 6. Guerin says American is looking at “literally everything” to be easier to do business with after recent changes around its distribution strategy. 7. Radcliffe says Accelia powers about 56% of all NDC transactions globally and processes 31 billion offers a day. 8. Richman says Amadeus has 24 airlines live in NDCX and has seen a five-fold increase in NDC activity. 9. Richman cites first-quarter volumes where some carriers saw more than half of Amadeus bookings coming through NDC. 10. The discussion compares NDC’s growth to EDIFACT’s long build-out of 40, 50, or 60 years and notes that TMCs still depend on mid-office and back-office systems. 11. Radcliffe explains that Amadeus treats the PNR as a trip repository while servicing happens directly between the agent console or API and the airline API. 12. Radcliffe says Accelia stores PNR-like data in an XML-based repository now and is building a modern repository in AWS for One Order. 13. Guerin says the PNR is doing “too many masters” for the long run and will need better solutions as the industry moves toward offer and order. 14. On bundles, Radcliffe says the capability exists for airlines that make bundles available via NDC and mentions that United Airlines bundled offers were already available through the API. 15. Richman says 50% of the 24 airlines in Amadeus NDCX were offering NDC-exclusive bundles, while 80% offered dynamic or continuous pricing and 70% offered interoperability. 16. Guerin says a bundle must flow from the airline to the GDS, then to the TMC, booking tool, and corporate policy before a traveler can use it. 17. Richman says anchored search and one-way combinables are among Amadeus priorities, and Radcliffe highlights unused-ticket exchanges, interlining, and richer OCNs. 18. The tone is technical and pragmatic, with frequent back-and-forth correction, concrete examples, and detailed implementation language. 19. Buyers, TMCs, GDS teams, and airline distribution leaders working on NDC adoption. 20. Casual listeners looking for light industry commentary without technical distribution detail.

As heard by us

A practical NDC briefing that stays close to the operating details.

The episode treats NDC as an operating problem, not a slogan, with Michael Baker and Donna Iroldi leading a supplier-side look at how airline retailing changed after American Airlines pulled a large portion of its fares out of traditional EDIFACT channels.

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Why you'd press play

Get the supplier-side read on NDC after American's EDIFACT pullback.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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