NDC: 10 Questions Every Travel Agent Should Ask Their Airline… & Why the Answers Are So Hard to Give.

NDC Is Not What Airlines Promised. And Travel Agents Are Paying the Price.

Let me say something that some of my airline colleagues will not enjoy reading.

NDC (New Distribution Capability) that IATA launched over a decade ago as the future of airline retailing - has not delivered what it promised. Not fully. Not for everyone. And in many ways, the people who have paid most of the cost and dealt with most of the problems are the very travel agents that airlines need to sell their seats.

I want to be clear before we continue: this is not an anti-airline article. I spent over 20 years working inside airline commercial management. I believe in airlines. I believe NDC is the right direction.

But there is a difference between the right direction and today's reality. And right now, if we are being honest (and I always prefer to be honest) that gap is still large.

What NDC Promised

The original promise, back around 2012 when IATA launched the NDC standard, was clear and logical. Airlines had spent decades filing static fares into the GDS and giving control of their product to a technology provider. The GDS showed every airline the same way: a list of prices, no context, no branding, no story. A full-service airline with a business class bed looked identical to a low-cost carrier with extra charges for everything.

NDC was going to change that. Rich offers. Dynamic pricing. Ancillaries included. Personalisation. The complete product flowing directly from the airline to the agent.

Agents would get better content. Airlines would get back control of their product. Passengers would get more relevant offers. A good idea, genuinely.

What Actually Happened

Some airlines have made real progress. Lufthansa Group, IAG - British Airways & Iberia - Air France/KLM have all invested seriously in NDC and the results are real. Singapore Airlines has reached the point where certain discounted economy fares simply do not exist in the GDS anymore. They are NDC only. If you do not have a working NDC connection, you cannot see those fares.

Think about what that means in practice. Not a seat selection. Not an upgrade. The actual fare - not available in the channel you work with every day.

For agencies in markets where NDC connectivity is still complicated or expensive to build - and this describes much of Southern Europe, the Balkans, and the Middle East - this creates a serious problem. Agents in these markets cannot offer their clients the same price as an agent who is connected to NDC. That is a commercial disadvantage, not a minor technical detail.

And NDC was supposed to reduce these content differences, not create new ones.

Three (3) problems that nobody talks about openly:

The first is that NDC is not one standard. Every airline has built it in a different way. An agency that connects to Lufthansa NDC, Air France NDC, and Emirates NDC is managing three separate technical relationships - different aggregators, different data formats, different support contacts. Calling this a "standard" is generous.

The second is cost. Large OTAs and TMCs with technology teams can build NDC connections without too much difficulty. For the independent travel agency - which is the majority of agencies in Greece, Italy, Spain, and across the GCC - the investment is significant and the return is not always clear.

The third is that the benefits for passengers have been slow to arrive. Better offers and real personalisation were supposed to be the main result. When agents - often correctly - sense that NDC is mainly a way for airlines to reduce GDS costs rather than genuinely improve the product, trust is damaged. And in this industry, trust is what makes the relationship work.

Let's Also Be Fair to Airlines

Airlines were not wrong to push for change. GDS dependency was a real problem. Distribution costs were high. And the airlines doing NDC properly - Lufthansa, IAG, Air France-KLM, Singapore Airlines - have delivered better content and better commercial results.

Even American Airlines, which pulled significant content from legacy GDS channels and created a lot of friction, has since changed its position. At the Airline Distribution 2026 conference, the VP of Sales said clearly: "If any airline could fill every seat through its own channels, we would do that. But that is not the world that exists."

That is an honest statement. Airlines still need agents. Especially in Europe and the Middle East, where agency networks remain the primary sales channel.

The 10 Questions Travel Agents Should Ask Airlines (But Usually Don't)

This is where I want to stop being polite and start being practical. Most agents sit through NDC presentations and leave without asking the questions that actually matter to their daily work.

Here are the ones that tend to produce uncomfortable answers - and that you have every right to ask:

On managing bookings after they are made:

1.      "If I need to reissue, revalidate, or change an NDC ticket - can I do this from my booking tool, or do I need to call your contact centre?" (For most airlines today: you call the call-centre.)

2.      "If my client's flight is cancelled, will I receive an automatic notification through the NDC channel and be able to rebook from my system?" (For most carriers: not yet.)

On what content you can actually see:

3.      "If I access your NDC through an aggregator, am I seeing your complete NDC content ( or only part) of it?" (This question almost always produces a pause.)

4.      "Are there fares or commercial offers available in your direct NDC that are not available through the aggregator you recommend to me?"

On combining airlines and connecting flights:

5.      "Can I combine your NDC fare with another airline in the same booking for a connection or interline itinerary?" (There is no working interline standard in NDC. The answer is effectively no.)

6.      "Does your NDC content connect automatically with my corporate clients' travel policy system and expense tools - without manual steps?"

On commercial agreements:

7.      "Do my commission agreements and incentive targets apply in exactly the same way for NDC bookings as for GDS bookings? How is this tracked?"

8.      "Is the BSP settlement process identical for NDC bookings, or do I need to set up a separate payment arrangement?" (In Europe and the Middle East, where BSP is the standard settlement method, this is a critical question.)

On pricing:

9.      "How long is an NDC offer valid once I have built a quote for my client? What happens to the price if I come back to issue the ticket the next day?"

10.   "When your dynamic pricing changes a fare between the search and the ticketing - who is responsible for the difference?"

These are not aggressive questions. They are the real operational situations that travel agents face every day. If an airline representative cannot answer them clearly, that tells you exactly how ready their NDC programme actually is.

Where NDC Is Genuinely Useful - And Agents Should Know This

To be complete - because this article needs to be fair in both directions - here is what NDC delivers when it works well. And for the right airlines, in the right markets, it does work:

-        Better fares that agents cannot find elsewhere - Lufthansa Group and Singapore Airlines offer NDC-exclusive prices that are lower than what is available through the standard GDS. If you are not connected, you are quoting your client a higher price than necessary.

-        Clear fare content display - Instead of a fare code that means nothing to the client, agents and clients can see exactly what is included: hand luggage, checked bag, meal, seat type, change conditions. Fewer misunderstandings, fewer problems at the airport.

-        Ancillaries at the point of booking - Seats, bags, meals, and upgrades can be added during the booking, not as a separate transaction afterwards. Simpler process, better experience for the client.

-        Better product presentation for premium cabins - Cabin photos, seat maps, and product descriptions visible in the agent's screen make it much easier to sell business class or premium economy to a corporate or high-value leisure client.

-        Live inventory accuracy - NDC offers come directly from the airline's live system, which reduces the risk of selling availability that no longer exists by the time you issue the ticket.

-        Better corporate personalisation - in theory - For TMCs managing large corporate accounts, NDC gives the airline the ability to recognise the traveller and offer prices and conditions based on their loyalty status and company agreement. Not consistent across airlines yet, but developing.

The Honest Conclusion

NDC is not a failure. But it is not finished either. And the distance between the original promise and today's reality is still being paid for, in different ways, by travel agents - in time spent on workarounds, in technology costs, and in daily frustrations that airline presentations tend to minimise.

The conversation between airlines and their trade partners needs to be more open. Particularly in Southern Europe and the Middle East, where agency networks are still central to airline distribution and the support structure for NDC adoption is not yet mature enough.

Ask the questions above. Ask for real answers. An airline that genuinely wants your business will help you access it properly.

That has always been the basis of a good commercial relationship. NDC does not change that.