IATA has announced new pilot programs for its New Distribution Capability (NDC). Participants are Aeroflot, Aer Lingus, Qatar Airways and airline IT company JR Technologies.
The announcement follows the Department of Transportation’s tentative approval of IATA’s Resolution 787, which lays the foundation for NDC, an XML messaging standard to facilitate the distribution of airline ancillary services through travel agencies.
This is the second NDC pilot for JR Technologies, which worked on NDC pilots with American Airlines and Air New Zealand in 2013. This time, JR Technologies will pilot an aggregator platform, which forwards shopping requests to airlines and consolidates the results for agents and travelers.
The NDC pilot program was launched in 2013. Participating airlines included American, Air New Zealand, Hainan Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Swiss International Air Lines. Earlier this year, Shandong Airlines and Air Canada launched pilots.