Travelport, a technology company serving the travel industry has began it’s first bookings using IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) with Qantas.
This move is the next step in it’s continued support for Qantas’ New Distribution Capability, including the Qantas Distribution Platform (QDP).
The bookings are being made through Travelport Smartpoint in a live production test environment as Qantas prepares distribution of differentiated NDC content from late 2019.
The NDC connection to Qantas enables live bookings of NDC content to be made by selected agency partners taking part in the testing program, including ATPI Corporate Travel, Globetrotter and Travel Beyond.
This comes ahead of a planned rollout for the wider agency community in the coming months.
Having been the first GDS to make a live NDC booking in October 2018, Travelport has already connected to five European airlines’ NDC content. It will follow up with an API NDC connection channel through Travelport’s Trip Service API with Qantas’ content.
“Qantas shares our vision that NDC has the potential to enhance the travel experience for its customers, offering personalized and differentiated choice and a seamless booking experience. NDC delivery is complex and requires collaboration from all parts of the travel industry. We value our relationship with Qantas and are grateful to our test agencies for partnering with us to ensure we deliver an NDC solution which makes the process of buying and managing travel continually better for everyone. The ongoing delivery of our NDC roadmap is a key part of this”, said Scott Barber, Managing Director Australia and New Zealand at Travelport.
