BCD Travel (No. 4 on Travel Weekly's 2018 Power List) has
entered into a multiyear partnership with Lufthansa Group enabling it to book
Lufthansa's New Distribution Capability (NDC) content.
The agreement is with Lufthansa Group airlines Austrian,
Lufthansa, Swiss and Brussels.
"The program will allow BCD to determine whether key
components of the NDC process are cost-effective for customers," BCD said
in a statement. "As the leading travel management company in Germany, BCD
concluded that a partnership with the Lufthansa Group airlines was potentially
a logical step towards understanding the value of NDC for the TMC's customers."
BCD noted that Lufthansa has successfully overcome obstacles
associated with NDC in the past three years.
"The development of robust and scalable NDC schemas has
been slow, but some have now become mature enough to warrant testing,"
said Rose Stratford, BCD's executive vice president of global supplier
relations and strategic sourcing.
BCD said GDSs will continue to play a "pivotal role"
in its booking strategy, noting that it entered strategic NDC relationships
with Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport this year.