EDITOR’S WELCOME
PULLING IT TOGETHER
The next big challenge? Content fragmentation. That’s what buyers and travel management companies alike told us in two recent Business Travel News surveys
NDC’s acceleration is explored throughout our distribution report in this issue (see p26-50), but on pages 34-35 you’ll find a dizzyingly complex diagram mapping out the ways in which airlines’ fares are delivered to their corporate customers. Its many parts include TMCs, the GDSs, aggregators, PSS, ARC and BSP (more three-letter acronyms!), and only four years ago the ‘map’ was published in its first iteration as a vision of the future. Today, with some tweaks, it is the reality. But NDC is just one example of the way in which suppliers’ content is becoming more diverse, bountiful and fragmented. In fact, NDC and non-GDS content aggregation emerged as the top area of investment for TMCs in a recent Business Travel News survey of agencies (see p8-9). Furthermore, content fragmentation was cited as one of TMCs’ biggest challenges this year by three agency group leaders interviewed in this issue (see p10-13) as part of our first Spotlight Series report, on travel management companies. Next up in the Spotlight Series is air travel, and you can bet NDC will be up for debate again.
NDC is just one example of how content is becoming more diverse and fragmented independent consultants to select NDC for inclusion on our 2023 Hotlist published in January, no matter that it’s been a decade in the making. In Europe, the likes of Lufthansa and Finnair are pushing the NDC envelope, while in North America, American Airlines told agencies to connect to its NDC channels or risk losing access to up to 40 per cent of its fares through traditional EDIFACT-based channels this April.
BY ANDY HOSKINS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, BTN EUROPE
T he business travel industry is full of three-letter acronyms: TMC, SLA, GDS... BTN! In fact, they’re the go-to moniker for TMCs themselves: there’s BCD, CTM, CWT, FCM. But of all the most frequently occurring, and taking the crown for the most divisive topic represented by three letters, is surely NDC – New Distribution Capability. For a long time the mere mention of it in a conference session could make eyes roll. And let’s not be fooled by the ‘new’. The concept was introduced by IATA some ten years ago but, in a distribution landscape that has evolved only haltingly in decades, it is indeed new and a game-changer. Recent developments have been sufficiently significant for our panel of editorial colleagues, buyers and
POWERING EUROPE’S CORPORATE TRAVEL COMMUNITY #016 SPRING 2023
CONNECTED CONTENT THE DISTRIBUTION ISSUE
• As ever, we welcome your feedback. Email me at ahoskins@thebtngroup.com.
PRIMED FOR TAKE-OFF Air distribution hit by turbulence as NDC developments accelerate
IN THE THICK OF IT How TMCs are getting to grips with increasingly fragmented content
AT THE COALFACE The evolution of content distribution is not all music to travel managers’ ears
5
SPRING 2023 | businesstravelnewseurope.com
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker