American Express Global Business Travel is beginning a "phased approach" to making NDC content available from sister carriers Air France and KLM through its Neo booking platform and Egencia.
The TMC’s approach will begin with a pilot making the NDC content available for select Egencia customers in France, as well as some Neo customers in France and the Netherlands via an Amadeus NDC-X connection.
The NDC rollout will expand “as capabilities mature”, according to Amex GBT, which did not specify when the pilots would begin in its announcement.
Amex GBT said Air France and KLM have met its “minimum marketable product” (MMP) standards - a list of requirements developed to ensure NDC connections meet the needs of managed corporate travel programmes, including shopping, booking, ticketing, reshopping, refunding and reporting capabilities.
“We have been working hard with Air France-KLM and Amadeus to deliver a robust, scalable solution to bring NDC offerings into our marketplace,” said John Bukowski, Amex GBT’s VP of content acquisition and strategic sourcing.
“Going forward, we hope this can be an example of how good partnerships and the MMP standard can help move the needle on modernising air distribution for the entire ecosystem.”
Stéphane Ormand, vice president distribution for Air France-KLM, said the airline group had “collaborated closely” with Amex GBT to develop a “sustainable, scalable NDC solution for our joint customers”.
“This has been a long-term commitment on both sides to deliver NDC together, and we are excited to start offering tangible NDC-enabled benefits such as continuous pricing and a more personalised experience for our joint customers,” added Ormand.