IAAI

IAAI and the I-Top team had made the historic victory by issuing the first NDC ticketing in India. Last week, Magellan Travel Services Pvt Ltd in Chennai had issued the first NDC ticketing in India on a British Airways flight for the MAA/LON sector through I-Top using the Verteil Technologies Direct connect platform. Recording the milestone victory, the magic lamp had issued the NDC tickets at a very lower price than all OTAs in India.

NDC (New Distribution Capability) is a travel industry-supported program (NDC Program) launched by IATA for the development and market adoption of a new, XML-based data transmission standard (NDC Standard). The NDC Standard enhances the capability of communications between airlines and travel agents.

Reservation and NDC ticketing on Lufthansa and Emirates airlines are also ready and 10 agents across the country shall be starting the pilot run by next week through I-Top using Verteil direct connect platform . The advantage and the very specialty of the I-Top powered by Travel Shore is that the portal can be used to issue tickets simultaneously through both GDS connectivity (presently Galileo, which will be followed soon by Amadeus and Abacus) and Verteil Direct Connect for NDC ticketing using BSP mode of settlement. And the major benefit is that the NDC ticketing will curtail discrepancies and agents will be totally free from any ADMs.

Biji Eapen, the national president of IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI) stated that “our experimental trial runs have turned out to be successful and prove that the I-Top users using NDC ticketing can easily avail better prices than any OTAs in India. Especially in a country like India, where zero commission prevails, I-Top will serve as a “magic lamp” for agents to generate revenue. Once I-Top becomes fully operational and more members start using, together and consistently, we will negotiate with airline operators for “consolidated special deals” so that the user member shall be substantially remunerated for their services rendered to the airlines”.

At present, travelers get only seat and fare options when booking a flight using a travel agency or OTA. With direct connect, they can finally get access to personalized offers, real-time fares, full suite of ancillary products and services like priority check-in, variety of meal options etc., from the airline directly in the indirect sales channels, said Jerrin Jos, Founder & CEO, Verteil Technologies.

“I-Top shall be offered to the common memberships by second week of January as a New year gift of 2018”. I-Top members with IATA accreditation will have the access to do IATA airline ticketing thru GDS and Verteil using BSP payment systems, whereas non-IATA agents will have all the access and facilities expect IATA ticketing.

News By : Editorial Desk | Posted On: Dec 26 2017