British Airways launches new servicing options via New Distribution Capability standard (NDC)

LONDON, 2016-Apr-29 — /Travel PR News/ — British Airways is rolling out a host of servicing options and an additional payment option via the New Distribution Capability standard (NDC), IATA’s programme to improve communication between airlines and agents.

Agents are able to adopt NDC through existing booking systems, giving them access to a whole range of benefits previously mainly available through airlines’ own websites.

These latest updates mean that agents booking British Airways flights through NDC enabled systems will now be able to:

• pre-book additional luggage
• advise the airline of catering requests for pre-order in Club World and First, pre-paid in World Traveller and World Traveller Plus or special meal orders
• add Executive Club and On Business numbers to enable tracking
• Pay British Airways via IATA’s Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP)*

NDC is the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) programme that improves communications between airlines and travel agents by addressing the industry’s current distribution limitations around product differentiation, time to market, access to full and rich content and the transparency of the shopping experience.

Ian Luck, British Airways’ head of distribution, said: “The introduction of NDC is a critical chapter in the evolution of distribution for the travel industry. There are more channels than ever for customers to buy through and more products for them to choose from. That brings with it the challenge of ensuring consistent access to useful information and content, which demonstrate the full range of products on offer and the value they represent. Customers have a choice of who they fly with and we want to make sure they can choose from our full range of products and they know as much as possible about what British Airways offers. NDC enables us to do that.”

“We believe these latest updates will prove very popular with our trade partners as they’ll be able to service bookings simply via their own NDC enabled systems, and know that they can pay the airline accurately and on time through existing systems. These changes should streamline their processes and save them time, as well as help them to deliver an even better service for customers.”

As an airline, British Airways is committed to NDC’s adoption and has been working hard to deliver benefits to the trade and customers.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

• *Agents that collect payment themselves, known as ‘cash sales’, rather than direct to the airline via their merchant agreement are bound to remit the payment to the airline under IATA’s Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP). BSP automatically calculates the money due, collects and pays the airline. Via NDC British Airways has now made it possible for agents to pay them using existing industry functionality, without making major changes to their systems.

Media in the UK can contact our London office:
Email: press.office@ba.com

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