Finnair is piloting technology with Skyscanner enabling consumers to complete their booking without leaving the metasearch platform.
The technology has been developed by Amadeus and is based on IATA's New Distribution Capability standard.
Finnair vice president of distribution, commercial excellence and data science Rogier van Enk says the technology, called Amadeus Altea NDC, enables the airline to sell flights and ancillaries through intermediaries as well as opening up opportunities to work with startups ups.
He adds that Finnair is keen to support industry standards and does not have the in-house capability to develop proprietary tools.
According to van Enk one-in-20 customers that come via the agency GDS distribution path purchase a flight-based ancillary compared to one-in-two on its direct channels.
The NDC API is a new solution from Amadeus and while allowing consumers to book via the intermediary, the booking ends up in the airline's host system.
Manuel Midon, head of airlines in Northern and Western EU for Amadeus, the technology allows consumers to compare fares but also helps carries with conversion.
The distribution giant is also doing a pilot of a new meta-booking solution which will be released in the coming months and available to all customers. The Altea NDC is only for Altea customers.
Midon adds that although there is movement in the market, it is still early days for take up of the NDC standard.
Skyscanner is the first intermediary Finnair is working with using the technology and the pilot is up and running in Germany so far with plans to expand to further markets.
Van Enk says additioanl connections to other intermediaries based on the technology including a chatbot startup in Spain are also on the cards.
Skyscanner director of product Filip Filipov says the pilot is a good opportunity for the company to expand its direct booking initiative which improves the customer experience.
The metasearch platform announced a deal with Scoot in January for the airline to enable direct booking on Skyscanner
Skyscanner has also had a deal with British Airways since late 2015 which uses NDC to sell upgrades.