MANAMA: Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, was recently certified with level 4 of the New Distribution Capability (NDC) certification from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The NDC Certification Programme, the only official industry certification programme in support of the NDC standard, is provided by IATA to airlines upon completing a set of requirements and achieving a number of deliverables.
NDC is a key transformation project, launched by IATA to modernize airline distribution. The NDC Standard enhances the capability of communications between airlines and travel agents by enabling an airline to make sales offers directly in real time which will also permit airlines to define and price their products in multiple ways. It enables travel agents across the globe to access Gulf Air content such as images of the aircraft cabin, a list of ancillary products and a list of add-on services which were only available on the airline’s website before NDC activation.
On the occasion of receiving the NDC Level 4 official certification, Gulf Air’s Chief Commercial Officer Mr. Vincent Coste said: “As part of our digital transformation, our focus continues to be on driving innovation and strengthening the value proposition through this downturn. With IATA’s NDC Level 4 certification, we are well-poised to improve the retailing and servicing experience across our global multi-channel distribution network, underpinned by a customer-centric approach. Apart from the anticipated cost savings, it will also give us the flexibility to create and fully control our inventory and content distribution across channels – from Online Travel Agencies, travel agents and Travel Management Companies (TMC) – providing easy access to rich content and differentiated, personalized and dynamic offers”.
Gulf Air’s Offer and Order Management solution is being powered by TPConnects, a leading technology company in Middle East and is based on Level 4 NDC Schema 18.2, which will enable Gulf Air to introduce content on NDC channels. The travel community is evolving to adapt to new consumer needs, thanks to opportunities brought by modern technologies. Gulf Air has invested in NDC enabled Offer and Order Management and Distribution through TPConnects and is geared up to meet the needs of travel partners and corporate customers to satisfy the changing expectations of how they can shop, book and pay.
“Congratulations to Gulf Air on achieving Level 4 NDC Certification, an important step on its journey to airline retailing, which will deliver a superior experience for its customers with richer content and increased transparency across all its distribution channels,” said Kamil Alawadhi IATA’s Regional Vice President Africa & The Middle East.
Travel and corporate partners, including IATA and Non-IATA travel agents, who wish to access Gulf Air’s NDC content will be able to register their interest on https://ndc.gulfair.com in the coming few weeks.
