IATA says it expects to get some indication from US regulators in the coming weeks over approval for its Resolution 787 and "a major step in the right direction" for the NDC project.
Director-general and CEO, Tony Tyler, used a media day at its Geneva headquarters in Switzerland last week to talk about a "growing coterie of businesses that understand and support" what the NDC project is all about.
To continue the message IATA has pushed throughout the (sometimes testy) process since it was unveiled during 2012, Tyler says:
"It’s about transparency, rich product descriptions and combined pricing for the fare and ancillary services. Airlines are investing enormously in their product and associated services.
"And NDC will facilitate access to the market so that travel agents will have the capability to make rich offers as airlines can from their website."
The first live pilot transaction for IATA NDC, including a fare sale, recently took place involved Hainan Airlines and Travelsky, the state-owned Chinese GDS, Tyler says.
Meanwhile, on the same day as members of the invited media were hanging out in Switzerland, but not mentioned in Tyler's address, was a short post from Eric Leopold (director for transformation, financial and distribution services) which appeared on the IATA blog.
What we've achieved and learned in two years of NDC was about as honest and transparent a series of points as anyone in the IATA stable has shown since the project started.
Leopold says the organisation has "learned a lot" and it is now time to "reflect on where we are now".
"NDC is not about defining a business model. IATA’s role is to develop industry standards and to facilitate market ad, option," Leopold writes, stressing that the project is not about building a new system and that IT companies and existing GDSs can continue to create their own processes based on the standards being developed.
But perhaps the most telling section in the article comes at the end, highlighting perhaps the one significant complaints most of those with concerns about NDC have had all along: being open to all points of view and positions.
"Capturing the inputs of all those partners requires a process inclusive of all relevant stakeholders, focusing on the end-to-end solution.
"Learning those lessons and looking ahead we are confident that we are now in a better position to facilitate a successful modernization of air travel distribution through NDC. We look forward to hearing from our partners and to working with them on this critical initiative."
Now some argue that many of those stakeholders should've been given a place on the strategic advisory group (known as the Passenger Distribution Group) in the first place.
But having some serious players from directly inside and outside of the ecosystem - the GDSs, IT providers such as IBM and HP and the likes of Google - involved on the DDX group (where, many concede, the majority of the core work is being done) is a sign that, to some extent, collaboration is actually taking place behind the scenes.
Perhaps not exactly "peace in the valley" for everyone, but a somewhat gentler vibe to the debate is clearly in the air.
Tnooz has contacted relevant parties involved in the debate for reaction, such as GDSs and industry groups, etc.
Svend Leirvaag, vice president of industry affairs at Amadeus, says:
"We genuinely welcome the more inclusive and cooperative approach IATA has adopted recently as well as its assurances that NDC will purely address standards, will be channel neutral and business model agnostic.
"But as IATA repeatedly present NDC as something that is different from what is stated in Resolution 787, we believe it needs indeed to formalize these commitments (to withdraw and rewrite Resolution 787) and to change the approach to becoming truly inclusive and collaborative.
"We have recommended IATA does this in collaboration with peer trade associations, to which IATA has responded positively and we look forward to seeing the next practical steps in that process."
Sabre says it has "no comment to make".
Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, says:
"It’s an exceedingly hopeful sign that IATA’s posture toward industry stakeholders is becoming more inclusive and that the organization recognizes the need to confer with non-airline industry participants with respect to technical standard setting. However, only time will tell if stakeholders will have a seat at the table and a real vote, or whether they will be told what the airlines have already decided.
"Although IATA asserts that Resolution 787, and the included New Distribution Capability (NDC), does not represent, and that it is not interested in designing, a new business model, a review of the agreement embodied within Resolution 787, and submitted for approval to the U.S. DOT, shows that 90 percent of it is all about the business model where offers are only provided after the traveler is identified.
"IATA’s claim that Resolution 787 and NDC will result in enhanced price transparency can only materialize if IATA provides concrete assurances that consumers not surrendering personal details will not be penalized with higher fares and that technical standards and their application will not be biased in favor of any business model or distribution channel. If such assurances are not ironclad, then skepticism will endure. If they are, then industry resistance will likely dissipate, and this would represent the best possible outcome for the industry and consumers.
"The surest way forward to true industry collaboration and cooperation is for IATA to resubmit to the DOT a resolution stripped of business model sections and strictly focused on technical standards, which IATA emphases is the only thing it is really interested in."
NB:Aircraft sunset image via Shutterstock.