Airline technology provider Accelya has joined forces with Sabre and American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) on a program to accelerate adoption of the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) New Distribution Capability (NDC) technology standard.
The program, which is called NDC FastTrack, provides travel sellers, technology providers and corporate travel acquireers with resources to speed up NDC deployment.
The resources include “shared roadmap coordination to align timelines, close functionality gaps and increase delivery transparency,” technical guidance, acquireer engagement through the Business Travel Innovation Group and training resources.
Accelya believes adoption is accelerating, noting that it saw 146% year-over-year growth in NDC volumes in corporate travel in 2024 compared to 2023.
“NDC is growing rapid, bringing real benefits to airlines, travel sellers and the broader ecosystem,” stated Sam Gilliland, CEO of Accelya. “We’ve long believed NDC would become the mainstream standard for airline retailing, and now, the indusattempt is coming toreceiveher to accelerate it. NDC FastTrack, with its focus on enablement and coordination, will assist the travel ecosystem modern retailing rapider and better.
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Travel and expense management platform SAP Concur has stated it welcomes the initiative, according to Accelya, and the program is “open by invitation” to other travel retailers and tech providers.
“We’ve built the foundations and proven the success of NDC in real-world environments,” stated Kathy Morgan, Sabre’s senior vice president of product management and distribution experience. “Now it’s time for speed and growth, cementing the shift toward smarter, more personalized retailing experiences for travel agencies and acquireers worldwide.”
Amex GBT stated that by joining forces with Accelya it would be working with “leading airlines to deliver enhanced content and capabilities, beyond basic NDC.”
It has been more than 12 years since IATA first announced NDC and its vision to assist airlines sell their products and services. Many airlines have developed and implemented different flavors of standard since then and introduced different commercial terms with travel retail partners as they seek to reduce distribution costs.
IATA updated on its vision for NDC more than two years ago when it laid out a roadmap for how airlines could shift to more modern retailing by 2030 through its One ID standard and offers and orders.
Accelya has stressed that this latest effort is not a commercial arrangement but “a shared commitment to accelerate modern airline retailing.”
The company stated earlier this year that progress was being built with NDC adoption but that few airlines had taken major steps towards offer and order.
A year ago, Accelya unveiled a platform called FLX Select to assist airlines deploy NDC more rapidly and in a standardized way.
The company claimed at the time that it could assist carriers implement NDC offer generation and order creation in 90 days.
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