Travel Startups Incubator has invested in Airlines Technology Private Ltd., an industry innovator in India focused on the New Distribution Capability (NDC) initiative spearheaded by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Founded to help airlines and travel agencies serve rich, comparative content to travellers via the New Distribution Capability industry initiative, Airlines Technology is set to become one of the world’s most powerful aggregators of available airline products and services.
According to IATA, NDC promotes the use of industry-wide standards for improving the sale of air travel-related products to consumers and businesses. Due to the many shortcomings of trying to sell directly to travellers and corporations online, NDC was developed to help airlines promote their fares and many services directly to purchasers.
Airlines Technology, one of the first vendors in the marketplace to achieve Level-3 NDC certification, is led by software developer and data warehousing specialist Paras Kumar, IT specialist Smriti Kumar and financial services specialist Varun Bansal. The team works closely with TSI advisor/mentor Daniel Friedli of Travel in Motion in Switzerland.
According to Bansal, he and his two Airlines Technology co-founders recognised early on that NDC would be a powerful force for change within the aviation industry. “NDC is the way ahead,” he says. “We are working hard to create a long-term sustainable technology platform that not only helps airlines’ top and bottom lines, but gives consumers more choices and a better overall experience.”
Paras Kumar adds that airline partners “will have the ability to return content to any requestor” via the Airlines Technology aggregator through a network of select travel agencies and online booking engines. “Such content can include product descriptions, photos, audio, videos, as well as links to further product specifics. By using NDC, we will give airlines full control over how their products are bundled, priced, and presented.”
By allowing airlines to distribute content to more channels in a much more flexible way, Airlines Technology will also empower them to shift their distribution to lower-cost channels. As a result, travellers will have access to more air travel-related offerings than ever before.
