"These are 3 ways that NDC will play a key role in the recovery of business travel", says CWT’s Erik Magnuson in conversation with Amadeus’ Paul de Villiers.
In a video launched today, Paul de Villiers, Senior Vice President, Global Accounts, Business Travel speaks to Erik Magnuson, CWT’s Vice President of Product Management, Mobility & Payments.
CWT recently announced the exciting milestone that it made the first-ever New Distribution Capability (NDC) booking via Amadeus’ flagship corporate booking tool, an important milestone in the acceleration of travel retailing.
New Distribution Capability (NDC) is an initiative for the adoption of a new common data transmission standard within the airline industry, enabling it to transform the way air products are retailed to both leisure and business travelers. Here are three ways that NDC will play a critical role in boosting confidence and bolstering a return to travel
1. Improved productivity
“When on a trip, employees need to be productive, engaged and looked after. NDC facilitates this by allowing the conversation to move away from a strictly cost-based to value-based discussion, focused on the entire trip,” says Erik Magnuson, “For example - I find when I am on a flight it’s a great time to clean up my email inbox. This is almost impossible to do in some seats given my height. Personally, I would appreciate if CWT negotiated a new bundled offer for me, that included extra leg room and wifi. This would address my comfort, improve my experience and make me a more productive employee for CWT."
2. Consistent traveler experience
NDC is one part of a much wider journey to enhanced modern retailing. With several more factors to consider compared to pre-pandemic days and changes in attitude to business travel, travelers now expect the same level of offers and services they get from companies outside of the industry such as Netflix or Spotify. Amadeus’ travel ecosystem, end-to-end integrated technology, expertise and collaborative approach help to deliver this vision.
For airline distribution this is about delivering unique content, maintaining servicing capabilities and improving experiences during the booking journey, regardless of the channel that clients choose.
3. Corporate travel - simplified
There is no doubt that as we return to travel, we will experience many changes in a post-pandemic world – changed travel policies, new vaccination requirements and enhanced health measures. These will all add to the complexity and stress for travelers as they take to the sky again. What is exciting to see amongst all this, is the possibility for NDC to help simplify the travel experience, creating a more personalized, convenient and modern retail experience for both travelers and counselors.
For the corporate travel industry to recover, we need strong collaboration throughout the ecosystem.