Articles tagged “gds”

Southwest Airlines is upping its corporate travel game by significantly expanding its presence in the global distribution system (GDS) network. This is set to enhance the relationship between the airline and its corporate buyers and agencies.

Airlines have invested in making many of their offerings increasingly data-driven in recent years. Yet they haven’t taken the same approach to schedules, one of their preeminent products.

New distribution technology has a lot of potential to improve booking for business travelers, but first airlines are going to have to make some compromises.

When it comes to implementing and adopting the New Distribution Capability standards for airline retailing, there needs to be a strong focus on enabling scalability, across the entire retailing, distribution, and fulfillment process.

Flexible technology is often confused with built-to-order technology. What the airline industry needs today to meet customer expectations is much more robust than that — it needs a way to implement solutions that allow them to use the best technological offering for each specific task.

Gordon Wilson will leave Travelport after taking the company private. The company has a travel technology veteran lined up to take the reins, and Travelport needs all the help it can get to compete against Sabre and Amadeus.

Travel agencies can benefit substantially from the level of personalization that NDC offers, but they have to develop new technological capabilities to realize those benefits.

In Australia, the New Distribution Capability is moving from a vague concept to an active business model, as Qantas urges travel agents to sign up to a new channel with expanded content. Those who miss the June 30 deadline could lose out on some enhancements but also face new fees for airline bookings.

The airline retail ecosystem appears to be overcoming the New Distribution Capability-related teething troubles and is finally getting the technical details right. This means that travel agencies can look forward to taking advantage of some real tangible benefits.

Going down the rabbit hole and considering the effect of a big tech crackdown in travel, Google and global distribution systems have perhaps the most to lose. It's likely, though, that few, if any, of Elizabeth Warren's proposed restrictions will ever become U.S. law.