Air France-KLM and Amadeus enable future delivery through NDC

As the tourism industry goes through this turbulent year, the delivery of the future through NDC has become, more than ever, a strategic priority for Air France-KLM and Amadeus.

Today, the Air France-KLM group and Amadeus announce an innovative NDC distribution agreement. The agreement will allow Air France-KLM NDC offerings to be made available to travel agents through the Amadeus Travel Platform and its solutions with NDC. To access Air France-KLM content distributed through NDC, agents will need to sign bilateral agreements with Air France-KLM and Amadeus.

Over the past few years, Air France-KLM has worked with Amadeus to connect these NDC services with the Amadeus Travel Platform. The process of first purchase (the prime booking flow of shop), orders and payments have already been integrated, which means that pilot travel agencies will be able to make reservations through NDC through the platform in the fourth quarter of this year. Full integration with service delivery is expected to be completed in the first half of 2021.

"We are pleased that Air France-KLM partner agents will soon be able to access our NDC content through the Amadeus platform," says Pieter Bootsma, Chief Revenue Officer of Air France-KLM. “NDC is a key innovation for Air France-KLM, as it enables its customers to benefit from more attractive and personalized offers, such as continuous pricing and tailor-made packages. This agreement is an important step in our distribution strategy, as it completes our existing NDC distribution network, especially for travel agencies with higher needs for service provision, such as corporate travel agencies.

Agents will be able to search, compare, book and offer Air France-KLM content on a single screen through Amadeus, either with Travel API or Selling Platform Connect. Amadeus will also allow corporate travelers to book via NDC through cytric Travel & Expense.

“We are excited to expand our long-standing partnership with the Air France-KLM group to offer innovative sales solutions. It is an important step in our journey with NDC to enable its large-scale implementation, ”said Decius Valmorbida, President Travel Unit at Amadeus. "All of this demonstrates both the strength of our technology and our collaborative approach, as we build a sustainable framework that adds value to airlines, travel agencies and travelers to achieve the industry's goals for future retailing." .

This is another important milestone in the Amadeus NDC [X] program that brings together airlines and agencies around the world to jointly push NDC services together. Now more than ever, there is a need for the entire industry to collaborate, as well as automated and scalable end-to-end solutions that are meticulously integrated to ensure bookings can be efficiently delivered and completed.