Close on the heels of launching the new version of the Iata NDC based travel aggregator platform, TPConnects conducted a series of successful workshops for Travel Agents in UAE.

Sunil Kumar, global president, United Federation of Travel Agents Association (UFTAA), and Amer Akthar, regional manager Finance and Distribution Service IATA Gulf and Near East, attended the workshop in Dubai along with senior managers from Air Mauritius, Egypt Air, Emirates, Gulf Air, Lufthansa, Oman Air, Saudi Gulf Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Srilankan Airlines.

NDC and ONE Order are key transformational projects, launched by Iata to modernise and simplify airline distribution.  

TPConnects’ new NDC based Travel Aggregator platform will give travel agencies worldwide access to airline content including ancillaries and fares via an NDC connectivity, alongside content from traditional Global Distribution Systems (GDSs), and other APIs.  The aggregator solution launched is used by big size travel management companies in the world. The Travel Aggregator B2B platform is offered with minimal upfront investment and on a per passenger booking fees.

For Online Travel Agents (OTA’s) and booking engine providers, TPConnects provides a Single NDC API where Travel Agents can access all their airline partners’ content without building and maintaining each connection or integration separately.
    
Kumar emphasised the need of travel agents transforming to online from an offline environment.  

For the travel industry in UAE, this workshop is an important engagement and it’s an impressive learning experience on “The Changing Trends in Travel Distribution” and the impact NDC will be creating worldwide. "I am glad to be part of this event. The workshop encourages stakeholders to be pro-active as Iata and the airlines industry unfolds, in a big way, the New Distribution Capability and ONE Order," Kumar said.

Along with NDC, evolution in business practices and customer fulfillment that is planned was also shared. "I am delighted to deal with the extensive interaction along with speakers from Iata and TPConnects. We collectively led the event into an interesting new world of discovery and opportunity. We are proud to be pioneering in this field, collaborating with leading travel players, and deploying truly innovative solutions for all of our customers," said Kumar.

Akhtar answered questions and clarified Iata’s various initiatives including the New Generation of Iata Settlement Systems (NewGen ISS) and the three levels of travel agent accreditation, enabling agents to choose the one that best fits to their business model.

George Rajan, TPConnects vice president Sales, said: “We are proud to be industry leaders in Iata NDC and ONE Order and are glad to conduct these kinds of interactive and collaborative workshops to educate the travel agency community on Iata initiatives."

Omeir Khan, account manager from Lufthansa Group presented Lufthansa’s NDC deployment and content differentiation along with the aggressive plans in GCC. Lufthansa is one among the 21 IATA Leaderboard airlines who have committed to process by the end of 2020 at least 20 per cent of indirect sales through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that align with the New Distribution Capability standard.

Oman Air Sales Team and NDC champions from UAE presented the NDC solution for travel agents and the content differentiation they offer including discounted ancillary product offer on the NDC channel. - TradeArabia News Service