Amadeus Gives NDC Update to Greek Travel Partners

Amadeus, a leading provider of cutting-edge technology solutions for travel and tourism companies worldwide, recently held two specialized events for its travel agency customers in Thessaloniki and Athens in Greece.

The events, attended by leading Greek travel agents and executives of the local Amadeus office of both cities, aimed to inform the company’s partners on the latest developments regarding the IATA New Distribution Capability (NDC) technical standard, an important issue for the travel industry.

Created by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), NDC is an XML-based data transmission standard that will enable travel companies – from airlines to travel agencies – to boost travel distribution and merchandizing.

“At Amadeus, we believe that NDC has the potential to deliver new benefits for all players if implemented in a standard manner that truly takes the needs of all players into consideration,” Eva Karamanou, General Manager for Greece & Cyprus, said.

Karamanou informed on the steps Amadeus is making in order for the smoother implementation of the NDC standard for the industry.

Through a particularly interesting presentation, the Greek travel agents were informed on Amadeus NDC-X, the company’s dedicated NDC program, which was launched earlier in 2018, aiming to industrialize the NDC standard through a holistic approach, which leads to added value for all players of the industry.

“The objective is to make NDC content easy to access and compare so travel providers and sellers can serve travelers simply, quickly and accurately,” Karamanou said.

Special mention was also made to the fact that Amadeus is evolving from a Global Distribution System (GDS) to become a Live Travel Space, an open, dynamic and connected space where all players can collaborate to address the travelers’ desires and needs and offer them a wide range of options at any given moment.

“As the industry moves to embrace new approaches to merchandizing and technology standards such as NDC, we must make sure we keep our ultimate customer, the traveler, in mind. As such, we are evolving our travel platform. It is a robust platform built on open systems, harnessing intelligent use of data and integrating new interfaces and architectures.”

According to Karamanou, Amadeus’ decision to evolve into a Live Travel Space is just the beginning of a longer journey to greater digitization that the entire industry is on, both airlines and travel sellers.

“The possibilities for innovating on top of NDC are potentially endless and ultimately it could revolutionize how travel is bought and sold in the future. We’re excited about this journey, the partners we’re working with, and what’s in the pipeline for next year!”