Recorded at CAPA Latin America Aviation & LCCs Summit, 10-Sep-2018
As NDC Becomes A Reality, How Do Airlines Avoid The Kodak Moment?
Legacy distribution systems have for decades presented airlines with the twin problems of high costs and product commoditisation. In efforts to address these issues, a handful of carriers have invested heavily into establishing their own API channels with agents, while the concurrent push by IATA for airlines to implement the NDC standard has encouraged the industry to adopt a retail focused approach to distribution. In this new modernised distribution landscape, itself reflective of wider consumer expectations around seamlessness and personalisation, new opportunities are emerging for other intermediaries and aggregators such as metasearch companies (some of which now have direct booking capabilities), as well as digital behemoths such as Amazon, Google, and Facebook – to gain a slice of the pie. It is clear that airlines, along with others in the supply chain, will need to evolve and invest in technology enhancements to avoid falling behind. GDS channels will also need to evolve their models to remain relevant as fragmentation becomes the new norm.
- How does airline.com compete in the era of conversational converse and new mobile, bot and voice technologies? Are there other distribution channels which airlines are underutilising?
- Is this increasingly fragmented and complex commercial and technological distribution landscape sustainable? How will business models evolve in response? Is there a need for a direct connect aggregator?
- Should airlines build lots of direct connects or revert back to lean, centralised distribution channels?
- Who is going to be offering services to bridge the gap between airlines/aggregators that are NDC compliant and those that aren’t? Will it be the GDS and IT providers, other airlines or speciality providers?
- How are newer intermediaries adding value to airline distribution?
Moderator: KPMG, Leader Aviation & Tourism LATAM, Eliseo Llamazares
Panel:
- Amadeus, Executive Vice President, Head of Americas, Amadeus Airlines, Elena Avila
- Avianca, Executive Vice President, Silvia Mosquera
- IATA, Regional Director, Financial & Distribution Services, The Americas, Alicia Lines
- Skyscanner, Senior Director, Commercial, Hugh Aitken