NDC might be the driving force behind changes in airline distribution - but there is a stumbling block in it gaining global adoption: China.
IATA's industry standard to overhaul how airlines and intermediaries communicate has had a turbulent ride since its introduction but, it would be fair to say, has settled down in recent years.
The global distribution systems that power much of the connectivity between carriers and agencies are striving to gain the appropriate levels of accreditation required to facilitate NDC (with Sabre saying recently that it couldn't hold out once airlines the size of British Airways adopted the standard).
But the China angle is one where there is plenty of work still to do done, not least because of its closed-shop status around the distribution of airline tickets.
Great wall of resistance
The issue in China is a fairly simple one to explain: State-backed GDS Travelsky holds the key to adoption of NDC in the country.
According to Nancy Zhou, co-founder and vice president at FlightRoutes24, the organisation holds a "monopolistic" position in the country, meaning that it is difficult for foreign distributors to push NDC to airlines in China.
"Technically it is possible to do it, to bypass Travelsky," she explains during a recent speech at the ITB exhibition in Berlin, "but the game stays the way it is."
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As a result, in markets such as China, where distribution is heavily regulated, airlines are "finding it tough to implement their own versions of Direct Distribution Charge, such as the one imposed on passengers using the Lufthansa Group of airlines.
In other words, imposing charges or insisting on direct connects through NDC-enabled technology will not be possible until Travelsky relaxes its existing stranglehold on distribution between internal carriers and external intermediaries.
Whether Travelsky is willing to embrace external standards is difficult to determine, says Zhou.
The company has been working on its own CPD (Carrier Direct Platform) project for some time, with state-owned Air China one of its main carriers trying to overhaul the way agents, corporate buyers and online travel agencies can get access to ancillary content, such as seat selection, prepaid baggage and other services.
This is a single standard for sole use between domestic airlines and their own partners, rather than one that has its origins as a global connection.
Indeed, "progress has been rather slow," claims Zhou.