Amadeus creates NDC-X program to drive industry innovation

February 21, 2018

Last updated: July 26, 2018

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Gianni Pisanello appointed to head up the program

The travel industry is moving towards increased personalization, as merchandizing techniques drive new revenues and business opportunities, and as travelers expect brands to know them and adapt offers accordingly.

It is against this backdrop that Amadeus today announces the creation of a dedicated program to drive the industrialization of NDC and ensure its success for all travel players.

New Distribution Capability (NDC), created by IATA, is an XML-based data transmission standard that holds huge promise for the travel industry, and will enable travel companies – from airlines to travel agencies – to evolve travel distribution and merchandizing.

With this in mind the NDC-X program will bring together experts from across Amadeus’ business, and will focus on practical use cases of the standard, adopting a test and learn approach to deliver improved capabilities for the industry. The NDC-X program is a continuation of Amadeus’ previous work towards the digitalization of the industry and the creation of commercial possibilities to build on NDC.

Gianni Pisanello, who has held a variety of leadership roles within Amadeus’ airlines business, both on the IT and the distribution side, will lead the new NDC-X program.

“We are at a critical moment in terms of the development of the standard, and the readiness of the industry,” says Gianni Pisanello, VP, NDC-X program. “For NDC to truly take off, we need to create a real standard not only for the protocol itself, but also for how it’s implemented. We also need to ensure that it responds to travel seller requirements, and that it has the right economics to drive investment. At Amadeus, we recognize that we have a responsibility to make NDC work for all travel players, and that’s what we will be doing through our NDC-X program.”

“The NDC-X program is a strategic priority for Amadeus. Our aim is to create better journeys for travelers through the best use of technology, and this transversal program will work with our travel seller and airline customers to deliver just that,” comments Decius Valmorbida, SVP, Travel Channels, Amadeus. “We are dedicating the right resources and have appointed a strong leader with a proven track-record in the industry to drive its success.”

Julia Sattel, SVP, Airlines, Amadeus, adds: “NDC holds great potential for the travel industry, and is part of a bigger picture of digitalization as airlines and travel sellers are testing new ways to adapt their businesses and improve services provided to the traveler. At Amadeus we are working hard to solve our airline customers’ technology challenges in areas such as merchandizing, dynamic pricing and cloud servicing, which we see as the heavy machinery in the background which will make NDC and improved retailing a reality.”

Please see Gianni Pisanello’s blog post for more information:www.amadeus.com/blog

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