Comes as industry moves towards IATA's Modern Airline Retailing programme
November 3, 2026·2 min2 min read
Paxport has partnered with the Institute of Travel & Tourism (ITT) to publish a whitepaper examining how travel sellers can mitigate connectivity risks as airline distribution and retailing continue to evolve.
The report, titled “Beyond the Booking Engine: How can travel sellers mitigate connectivity risks?”, includes a 24-question checklist designed to help travel agents, online travel agencies (OTAs) and tour operators assess their technology and connectivity partners.
The whitepaper comes as the airline industry moves towards IATA’s Modern Airline Retailing programme, which aims to shift distribution towards Offers and Orders, while New Distribution Capability (NDC) adoption continues at different speeds across carriers.
It also examines the challenges of integrating direct airline APIs, which can require significant technology investment, alongside the growing influence of AI-driven search on how travellers discover and purchase trips.
Paxport said travel sellers must also account for increasingly frequent disruption and the operational risks associated with relying on complex technology infrastructure.
The report identifies five key areas of risk: geopolitical events and catastrophes, broken interlining and codeshare complexities, cyber attacks and system outages, the ability to adapt to changing airline content, and financial risks associated with payments and reconciliation.
It explores how travel sellers can manage schedule changes at scale, service multi-carrier journeys across NDC and legacy distribution channels, reduce reliance on single points of failure and respond to airline content changes without costly development work.
Financial considerations, including card surcharges, reconciliation and integrated payments, also feature in the report.
At its centre is the Travel Seller Checklist, which sets out 24 questions covering areas including content quality, search performance, servicing, security, payments and the ability to switch providers.
The checklist is intended to help commercial, product and procurement teams evaluate prospective connectivity partners or review the resilience of their existing arrangements.
Simon Taylor, head of commercial at Paxport, said: “We are proud to deliver this whitepaper to equip travel sellers with the practical guidance they need to make confident, evidence-based decisions.
“Sourcing airline content can no longer be viewed as a simple pipeline; true resilience lies in the quality of connection.”
He added that travel sellers needed partners capable of managing complexity, maintaining accurate and reliable content and providing support when travel plans change.
Dr Steven Freudmann, chair of the ITT, said connectivity decisions had become increasingly important beyond traditional IT departments.
“Today, some of the most important decisions sit in areas once left to the IT department,” he said.
Freudmann said the whitepaper translated a complex technical subject into practical guidance for travel professionals, adding that printed copies would be available to ITT members in its lounge at World Travel Market (WTM) London this week.
The publication highlights the growing importance of connectivity infrastructure as travel sellers navigate changing airline distribution models, increasing technology complexity and the need to maintain reliable customer service during disruption.
