NDC adoption drives surge in direct airline bookings, says Traxo

Non-TMC corporate airline bookings increased from 19% to 31% since January

Since the surge of NDC focus and adoption spurred by American Airlines in 2023, Traxo has reported it has seen a material uptick in non-TMC bookings for air travel.

Through the complete on- and off-platform bookings Traxo captures and via its NDC status monitoring site, NDCtracker.com, the company has observed a significant NDC adoption trend towards in-direct air bookings, rising from 18.7% in January to 30.6% in June, 2024.

Andres Fabris, CEO and founder of Traxo, said: “While NDC was intended to be purely about upgraded technology, some airlines have shaped their NDC-related policies to achieve commercial goals such as direct bookings. 

"As a result, NDC has sometimes been 'weaponised' to encourage corporate travelers to book directly, attracted by benefits like enhanced personalization, dynamic pricing, and cost savings.”

Andres continues: “The NDC landscape has transformed rapidly, significantly reshaping corporate travel. 

"The push for direct distribution by airlines and active corporate engagement on our platform underscores a shift towards more cost-effective and flexible booking options. 

"There is no going back, so staying abreast of developments and booking patterns in real-time is crucial. 

Launched a year ago, Traxo’s NDCtracker.com monitors 73 airlines worldwide, facilitating NDC's role in reshaping the sale of air products and enhancing corporate travel management. In the last year, more than ten major airlines have made notable announcements about adopting NDC.

The tracker was developed to address the challenges travel managers face in staying on top of current NDC news and the concerns about how it will affect their travel programmes.

The platform has quickly became essential for many, amassing substantial registrations.

Based on Traxo’s observations of announcements via the tracker, airlines are taking various approaches to stimulate NDC adoption.

One approach taken is agency assitance where they provide agents with financial support to make the NDC updates, or they restrict fare access which is where they pull fares from EDIFACT or reserve inventory for NDC sellers only.

Alternatively, Traxo reports another approach seen is lowering the prices of NDC fares and ancilleries to encourage use, while the final obvious one is to impose distribution charges on EDIFACT.

Traxo has said it encourages collaboration with airlines and industry partners to enhance the NDC Tracker resource.