The company said in a release that it had successfully issued the tickets from a first transaction by an agency in the UK, with President and CEO Gordon Wilson calling it a “landmark moment for airline distribution”.
Travelport reckons that it has become the first of the global distribution systems to manage live booking of flights using IATA’s New Distribution Capability technical standard.
The company said in a release that it had successfully issued the tickets from a first transaction by an agency in the UK, with President and CEO Gordon Wilson calling it a “landmark moment for airline distribution”.
Last Friday (October 19), British agency Meon Valley Travel made the first transaction for a short-haul low-cost flight from London to Milan, issued by a major European carrier. The booking was managed by Travelport’s Smartpoint agency point of sale.
This comes after industry efforts to develop new technical standards in 2012.
Travelport announced in February a plan for its initial range of NDC products. Over the next few months, the first version of the NDC capability launched this week will be used by agencies and airlines as part of a progressive rollout.
It will also be followed by a series of product enhancements, including a version of online agents in 2019.
Last December, Travelport was the first among the GDS providers to acquire Level 3 certification from the International Air Transport Association. It now offers rich content and branding, used by over 270 airlines.
The company has pledged to develop the products in consultation with a wide range of agencies and airlines globally.
“We are still at the very earliest stages of NDC deployment. Its evolution will continue to take time as we learn from the practical experience of its first use. Meanwhile, we continue to offer a comprehensive global travel commerce platform capable of handling mass volumes of searchable and bookable content at speed for the world’s travel providers and agents,” said Wilson.
Aleks Popovich, IATA’s Senior Vice President, Financial and Distribution Services called this “a significant step toward the new era of airline retailing”.