Routehappy airfare content to be made available in NDC Exchange

Platform developed jointly by Airline Tariff Publishing Company and technology firm SITA Continue reading →

Airline rich content provider Routehappy has signed a deal that will see its fares and product descriptions available via the NDC Exchange data standard.

NDC Exchange has been developed jointly by global aviation pricing and shopping data source Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO) and technology firm SITA.

Routehappy says the move marks “a major step forward” to improving the flight shopping experience for consumers.

It’s Universal Product Attributes (UPAs) and Universal Ticket Attributes (UTAs) specifies airline product and services by aircraft type, cabin and time of day, as well as fare benefits and restrictions.

Routehappy says having UPAs and UTAs in NDC Exchange enables airlines to provide a “consistent product offering across the entire travel distribution ecosystem”.

It adds its airlines customers will be able to include Routehappy’s rich content integrated into their NDC offers.

Rolf Purzer, ATPCO president and chief executive, said: “This is true industry advancement and an important first step as we deepen the technical integration between Routehappy and ATPCO.

“We have created a streamlined process for getting all content out into the market more easily, saving airlines and travel sellers time, money, and effort.

Robert Albert, Routehappy by ATPCO chief executive, added: “This is a real industry validation of Routehappy UPAs and UTAs and Routehappy’s ability to bridge the rich content gap in flight shopping.

“Airlines want a single source that offers a flexible, modern and affordable solution to manage their rich content.

“By bringing Routehappy rich content into NDC Exchange, we are helping airlines provide a consistent but highly differentiated shopping experience for the entire travel distribution ecosystem.”

Keith Wallis, Air Canada director of global product distribution, said: “As a customer-centric airline that is focused on delivering a superior travel experience, we are always looking for innovative solutions that allow us to market our premium level products and differentiate ourselves from the competition.

“With this integration, ATPCO is providing us with the ability to combine our pricing data with rich content so that all our product offering information is in one place.

“As an existing Routehappy subscriber, NDC Exchange becomes even more valuable to us at Air Canada as it now allows us to quickly and simply provide our NDC Exchange distribution partners with product content combined with rich media in one connection, and that provides significant benefit to us and to our NDC Exchange partners.

NDC Exchange is a marketplace that provides airlines and sellers the ability to connect once and have instant connectivity to all other players in the exchange, creating interoperability between NDC schema versions. Announced in October 2017, it has multiple pilot participants.