Delta and Virgin Atlantic are working in tandem on enhancing
the shopping experience across distribution channels with the International Air
Transport Association's New Distribution Capability as a "building
block," the carriers announced.
Virgin Atlantic has achieved Level 3 certification for NDC
18.1, the highest level available, and Delta is on track to do so next month,
Delta VP of sales operations and development Kristen Shovlin said. That will
make them the first partnership to reach that level together, according to IATA
NDC program director Yanik Hoyles.
"This is the beginning of what we look at as the next-generation
storefront," Shovlin said. "We're building around what customers are
looking for—transparency and choice—and through this process, they will be able
to get that wherever they want us to be."
Delta now will begin a pilot with corporate buyers, travel
management companies and other travel intermediaries, Shovlin said. Similiarly,
Virgin Atlantic is "starting the journey" of pilots with corporate
buyers and TMCs after trialing a few projects on the leisure side, Virgin
Atlantic VP of sales Emma Jones said.
Cooperation is likely to extend further as Delta, Virgin
Atlantic and Air France-KLM move forward on their consolidated
joint venture, which is expected to achieve regulatory approval in
the middle of next year. Virgin Atlantic "fully intends to work with Air
France-KLM" once those approvals are in place, Virgin Atlantic manager of
distribution product Andy Hall said.
For Delta, the NDC cooperation is just another example of
its strategy of "global coordination worldwide," Shovlin said.
Similarly, Delta on Monday announced that in the fourth quarter of this year,
it will extend its
Global Corporate Priority benefits to Air France-KLM corporate
travelers, as well as to its own passengers on Air France-KLM flights.
In the meantime, the NDC project is only one part of an
overall distribution strategy for Delta, managing director of distribution
strategy Jeff Lobl said. That also includes the carrier's recent signing
as an SAP Concur TripLink airline partner, he said. "We're very
supportive of NDC, but we're pushing for more retail transformation, where GDSs
will provide greater connectivity and agencies will provide greater choice to
customers. We have a growing partnership of people we are working with on
that."