NDC Motion: ‘Path To a Good Outcome’

A sense that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) was moving toward a decision on IATA’s Resolution 787, helped drive the opposing parties to reach agreement on the issue, according to Paul Ruden, ASTA’s senior vice president, legal and industry affairs.

The agreement reached last week between IATA and the Open Allies for Airfare Transparency, “solves the uncertainty on both sides,” Ruden said. “It’s a path to a good outcome.”

IATA and Open Allies, of which ASTA is a member, agreed on a motion asking the DOT to approve the Resolution 787 with a number of conditions.

Resolution 787 is the foundation document for IATA’s New Distribution Capability, which aims to create technical standards for the distribution of airline merchandising content through third parties, such as travel agencies or aggregators of content for travel agencies.

Limits on IATA
Ruden acknowledged that the agreement contains a lot of similarities to the conditions proposed by IATA in June, but “one of the benefits is that they are more detailed and precise,” Ruden said.

“It puts substantive limitations on what IATA can do,” he said.

“They cannot put anything into the standard that would act as a poison pill, making it impossible to integrate with current systems.”

Key sticking point
That had been one of the key sticking points regarding the resolution.

Its original language stated: “With due consideration for established business processes, procedures and current system functionality, there should be no constraints driven by any requirement for backwards compatibility. Airlines may wish to establish a roadmap for migration showing justification for backwards compatibility only if there is a defined business need.”

That was interpreted by some observers as an attempt at GDS bypass.

When IATA submitted Resolution 787 to the DOT for approval, it added a lengthy introduction that said, “Nothing prevents third parties from developing backward compatibility, and the Resolution provides the freedom for airlines to distribute their content through the legacy networks, use the new XML standard or both.

“We anticipate that this hybrid approach will continue for some time by many airlines. IATA intends to maintain the EDIFACT standard as long as it remains relevant to the industry.”

Still critical
But that didn’t satisfy the resolution’s critics.

The joint motion by IATA and Open Allies states: “Any communications or message standards or protocols developed under Resolution 787 shall be open standards, meaning useable by distributors of air transportation and intermediaries in the distribution of air transportation, including CRSs and other aggregators, on a non-discriminatory basis.

“Approval of Resolution 787 does not constitute approval of any agreement to prohibit individual IATA member airlines or groups of such airlines from continuing to utilize any communication or message protocol, including existing standards.”

It’s not over
The agreement won’t end the NDC discussion, Ruden said.

“It’s the beginning of a process,” he said, one that began last Friday at a meeting of key  in Miami. “We have a seat at the table now.”

The DOT must still approve the resolution and may come up with additional conditions of its own, Ruden noted.

But he thinks it’s in the public interest to approve the resolution and the proposed conditions. Some form of NDC “is inevitable,” said Ruden.

Here to stay
Mass personalization – the use of Big Data to create customized offers – is becoming common throughout the retail industry, and consumers are more willing to accept it.

Ruden said some people think ASTA is opposed to innovation but that’s not the case.

“Big Data is here to stay,” he said. It will be “a fundamental change in the way air travel is sold. It’s exciting.”