Sabre Corporation, a leading software and technology company powering the global travel industry, has successfully integrated IATA New Distribution Capability (NDC) content from Qatar Airways (QR) to its global distribution system (GDS). After a pilot phase with agency customers in Australia and Sweden, the offers of Qatar’s flag carrier were rolled out to travel agencies across the globe on July 7, 2022.
Travel agencies will be able to shop, book, and manage NDC offers from Qatar Airways. Access to Qatar’s content will be available through Sabre Red 360, Sabre’s agency point-of-sale tool, as well as its NDC-enabled Offer and Order Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
“We’ve been actively engaged in Sabre’s Beyond NDC program for several years and we’re proud to be the first carrier based in EMEA to make our products and offers available to the global travel agency community through Sabre’s marketplace,” said Matt Raos, Senior Vice President Global Sales at Qatar Airways. “With NDC as a part of our strategy to evolve our offering and enhance ancillary sales, we believe effective distribution in the indirect channel will become more important in the future.”
With Qatar Airways’ extensive network of destinations, access to the carrier’s unique NDC content is expected to be relevant to travel buyers across the globe in the post-COVID-19 recovery period and beyond.
“As the corporate travel sector continues to recover, customers are looking for enhanced shopping experiences and improved content in their marketplace,” said John Bukowski, Vice President of Distribution, Content and Sourcing at American Express Global Business Travel. “Our objective is to ensure that our customers and travelers have access to the broadest content and an unrivaled travel experience. We are excited about collaborating with Qatar Airways and Sabre to continue to evolve our customers access to content while delivering the servicing and experience they expect from American Express GBT.”
NDC is one aspect of Sabre’s strategic goal to create a new marketplace for personalized travel, with some key developments expected for 2022. Dynamic air pricing for NDC offers is anticipated to become available with the recently launched Air Price IQ product within the Sabre Retail Intelligence suite, which will enable airlines to optimize offers in real-time with machine learning and data analytics capabilities based on airlines’ unique strategies and needs. As an NDC aggregator and airline IT provider, Sabre is now included in the Airline Retailing Maturity (ARM) index from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Radixx, which provides solutions for low-cost carrier airlines, is also expected to become certified under the ARM index later this year as an airline IT provider.
“We’ve always said that NDC is a marathon, not a sprint,” said Kathy Morgan, vice president, Channel Delivery, Sabre Travel Solutions. “We believe that realizing the potential of NDC is a collaborative effort, and we are excited about the progress we are making with carriers like Qatar Airways. Alongside strategic efforts like Sabre Travel AI ™, as well as the launch of our Retail Intelligence suite of products, these NDC achievements expand and progress our opportunities to advance personalized retailing.”
