Qatar Airways becomes first EMEA carrier to make NDC products available on Sabre

GDS says it is excited by the progress it is making in the 'marathon' roll out of NDC with airlines like Qatar

Qatar Airways NDC fares and offers are now available for agents to book on the Sabre GDS following a successful pilot period in Australia and Sweden. 

A global roll out of the content began on July 7 making the fares available to agents through Sabre’s Red 360 point-of-sale tool. 

The carrier is the first in the EMEA region to make its NDC products and services available on the global Sabre B2B marketplace.

The content is also available through Sabre’s NDC-enabled Offer and Order Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

Matt Raos, senior vice president global sales at Qatar Airways, said: “We’ve been actively engaged in Sabre’s Beyond NDC program for several years and we’re proud to be the first carrier based in EMEA to make our products and offers available to the global travel agency community through Sabre’s marketplace.

“With NDC as a part of our strategy to evolve our offering and enhance ancillary sales, we believe effective distribution in the indirect channel will become more important in the future.”

With Qatar Airways’ extensive network of destinations, access to the carrier’s NDC content is expected to be relevant to travel buyers across the globe in the post-COVID-19 recovery period. 

John Bukowski, vice president of distribution, content and sourcing at American Express Global Business Travel, said: 

“As the corporate travel sector continues to recover, customers are looking for enhanced shopping experiences and improved content in their marketplace.

“Our objective is to ensure that our customers and travelers have access to the broadest content and an unrivaled travel experience. 

“We are excited about collaborating with Qatar Airways and Sabre to continue to evolve our customers access to content while delivering the servicing and experience they expect from American Express GBT.”

Sabre is planning to launch dynamic air pricing for NDC this year having launched Air Price IQ as part of the Sabre Retail Intelligence suite.

This will enable airlines to optimise offers in real-time with machine learning and data analytics capabilities based on airlines’ strategies and needs. 

As an NDC aggregator and airline IT provider, Sabre is now included in the Airline Retailing Maturity (ARM) index from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). 

Radixx, which provides solutions for low-cost carrier airlines, is also expected to become certified under the ARM index later this year as an airline IT provider.

Kathy Morgan, vice president, channel delivery for Sabre Travel Solutions, said: “We’ve always said that NDC is a marathon, not a sprint.

“We believe that realising the potential of NDC is a collaborative effort, and we are excited about the progress we are making with carriers like Qatar Airways. 

“Alongside strategic efforts like Sabre Travel AI, as well as the launch of our Retail Intelligence suite of products, these NDC achievements expand and progress our opportunities to advance personalized retailing.”