After much speculation about when Delta Air Lines would enter the world of New Distribution Capability – and for most observers it was always a matter of when, not if – the industry has an answer.
The carrier is in the process of building its NDC solution with various partners and intends to have some "milestone releases" available in late 2024 for "customers that want to come and test and learn alongside us," Delta managing director of sales technology and global sales support Sara Reid told BTN Europe stablemate Business Travel News.
"As we move into 2025, the first half of the year, we will do some integrations with the ecosystem and start to work on unlocking or opening value with some of the new products we are looking to put into the marketplace."
During the second half of 2025, Delta plans to enable omni-channel servicing at scale, and from 2025 and beyond, to enhance and "continuously improve innovations for the industry," according to a timeline slide shared with BTN.
Reid reiterated that Delta did not currently have plans to follow in the footsteps of other carriers and remove fares from EDIFACT channels or to impose surcharges.
"We absolutely have no plans to prematurely remove content or impose surcharges as adoption tactics," Reid said. "We think if this journey is done right, and we plan to do this right, that we'll drive adoption by creating value for customers, not by these forceful tactics."
The airline also announced its plans during a Thursday morning Business Showcase event.
Solution design partners
Partners Delta is working with include Accelya, Airlines Reporting Corp., the International Air Transport Association and Google. Reid did not go into detail about what each partnership would entail, other than to say that Delta is building toward the IATA 21.3 schema, but that "we are not going to allow that schema to hold us back from creating value for our customers," she said.
Delta later added that the carrier will work with Google to "optimise the offers we provide across all channels."
Accelya confirmed that Delta would use its FLX platform's modular approach and APIs to deliver the carrier's NDC content and scale integrations, "allowing Delta to reach a vast range of sales channels while maintaining the airline's ability to deliver its next generation product strategy."
"We are not simply taking out-of-the-box solutions implemented with other carriers. We are challenging the status quo to say we want to make sure that all that information we collected during the discovery phase, that we are going to be able to implement,” Reid said.
Delta's goal is to design a solution that will mimic the experience of its website, which Reid added is something customers said "would be ideal."
Reid also noted that the global distribution systems have been part of the carrier's discovery phase and anticipates that those integrations will happen in the first half of 2025. The carrier said it has also been in talks with TMCs such as American Express Global Business Travel and Amtrav and is working with online booking tools, including SAP Concur, as it prepares to launch its NDC solution.
Selling and servicing ‘transformation'
Delta is calling its NDC development a "selling and servicing transformation." Its focus is to create "better products, better merchandising, better servicing, and we will do that by being collaborative with our customers and industry partners," said Delta’s SVP of global sales Bob Somers at an industry conference held in Washington last week.
Reid added: "We have pushed EDFIACT to the limit. We need this new technology to create better products, and we are creating those products with corporate customers in mind."
The carrier's corporate advisory board has been "working with us for two years on this journey, and they are very comfortable with the timeline," Somers said. "Do it right; don't do it fast."
When asked whether Delta would use continuous pricing, which United Airlines uses and American Airlines has said it soon would add, Reid declined to share the carrier's plans.
Delta intends to be "very transparent" with customers and partners regarding its NDC capabilities. "We plan to create a website that will allow people to know where we are on our journey and the capabilities that are available, and we will keep that up to date," Reid said.
Somers added that one of the biggest differences between what Delta will offer compared with other carriers is the "prioritisation of corporate and business travel. That will be at the forefront," he said, suggesting that other carriers have lowered the prominence of that segment in their sales strategy.