The Business Travel Coalition is claiming increasing global opposition to Iata’s planned New Distribution Capability platform.
Increasing global opposition to NDC, warns Business Travel Coalition
The Business Travel Coalition is claiming increasing global opposition to Iata’s planned New Distribution Capability platform.
The BTC believes that the airline body is trying to convince US regulators that NDC is not as fundamental a change as has been stated in its own resolution in an attempt to ease it through.
Instead, the BTC sees NDC as a “fundamental change” in the business model for the pricing and sale of airline tickets and not just a technical standard-setting exercise as Iata claims.
The Coalition claims NDC would alter airline policies and practices covering the pricing and sale of air services by travel management companies, travel agents and GDSs on a global basis.
It has attracted 150 signatories from 16 countries including Mongolia, Cyprus, Netherlands, Costa Rica, Curacao, Iceland and Honduras to a petition against the proposal to go to US transportation secretary Ray LaHood on May 1.
Some 200 travel managers have registered for a free webinar on April 26 run by the BTC and the American Society of Travel Agents covering the impact of the NDC.
Iata has applied for approval for ‘Resolution 787,’ which includes NDC, with the US Department of Transportation, which has the authority to approve or block implementation.
The BTC is calling on the global travel industry to petition the DoT on NDC, which it describes as a “full-throated airline assault” on price transparency.
“Given the probable anti-competitive effects of Resolution 787 and NDC, and the unprecedented invasion of privacy for all consumers, DOT needs to take the right decision,” the Coalition said.
BTC chairman Kevin Mitchell stated, “The growing global opposition to NDC and the strong response to these outreaches have no doubt been fuelled by Iata’s decision to exclude travel managers, travel agencies and their trade organisations from the strategy meetings in which this new business model was conceived over the course of nearly a year.
“Remarkably, once non-airline stakeholders were finally invited to participate, decisions were already taken by the airlines before technical meetings even began.”
