Air Canada has announced its New Distribution Capabilities (NDC) program, which will provide new benefits, expanded content and additional trade support for agencies and travel buyers, including TWAI as an NDC aggregator. This program will allow agents to access Air Canada inventory, fares, ancillary services, ticketing, and digital products, offering a competitive alternative to legacy distribution. For buyers and travellers, NDC technology means their preferred agencies can now offer a broader range of Air Canada travel options and services at the best possible prices, improving competitiveness and the customer experience.
Air Canada has conducted extensive third-party research to design the program that addresses key requirements, including inventory, revenue, functional capabilities, and transition costs. The improved NDC program offers an efficient shopping experience for retail fare products, continuous pricing, and upgraded service and support levels, including dedicated business and IT teams, 24/7 monitoring, and near real-time system status. Air Canada will also offer four flexible options for NDC access, each designed to suit different agency business models, ranging from API integration and a free web-based tool to a growing catalogue of certified technology providers and a GDS-based solution.
As part of Air Canada’s modernization efforts, a Distribution Cost Recovery (DCR) will be introduced to address the high expense of legacy models. However, this DCR will not apply to bookings made via any of Air Canada’s NDC connection options, including NDC-sourced content in a GDS solution, as well as through Air Canada’s other direct booking channels such as aircanada.com, aircanada.com/agents, Air Canada for Business, and the Air Canada mobile app, or group bookings.
This news means that TWAI can continue to offer Air Canada content to its customers through NDC technology, providing access to the most comprehensive Air Canada content, an efficient shopping experience for retail fare products, and continuous pricing. Additionally, upgraded service and support levels, including dedicated business and IT teams, 24/7 monitoring, and near real-time system status, will improve TWAI’s customer experience. As an NDC aggregator, TWAI can offer four flexible options for NDC access to suit different agency business models. TWAI is excited to see Air Canada’s NDC program develop and looks forward to the additional features and offerings that will become available as new products and services are introduced.
