Sabre Corporation has announced two milestones on the road to enabling NDC capabilities and creating the leading global marketplace for personalized travel.
Achieved in collaboration with travel agency Flight Centre Travel Group and an airline partner, Sabre is now Level 4 certified as an aggregator under the International Air Transport Association (IATA) NDC Certification Program.
“Flight Centre Travel Group is delighted to have supported Sabre in achieving this milestone. As one of the largest leisure and business travel agencies in the world, our priority has always been to drive the NDC roadmap in order to ensure our customers benefit from the opportunities that NDC presents,” said John Beauvais, Global Head of Supply, Flight Centre Travel Group.
“We have worked closely with Sabre as a lead partner in their “Beyond NDC” initiative to help achieve this over the last two years. However, in the post-Covid era, NDC will play an even greater role in travel distribution. The fact that Sabre is IATA Level 4 certified will enable our travel consultants to access an even wider choice of content and provide their customers with an even greater degree of personalization.”
The certification confirms Sabre’s technical ability to support a set of criteria related to full offer and order management capabilities. It also demonstrates additional progress for Sabre in going beyond the NDC standards – to facilitate omnichannel retailing and distribution of intelligent airline offers and develop scalable capabilities for travel intermediaries.
Moreover, Belarusian Airlines Belavia became the first carrier globally to achieve IATA’s Level 3 certification using Sabre’s airline IT NDC capabilities, representing a meaningful step forward in the airline’s retailing evolution.
“As we ramp up our operations in response to the easing of global lockdowns, our customers are increasingly demanding personalized experiences and flexibility,” said Uladzimir Barkun, Deputy Director General, IT (CIO) of Belavia. “NDC plays a key role in enabling us to fulfil those expectations, helping us to market our content more effectively. Making our content available through all channels – including NDC – will ultimately help us in our recovery efforts, and we are grateful to Sabre for partnering with us to make this happen during such a difficult time for the travel industry.”
