Travel providers could then connect directly to an airline's NDC API for scheduling, pricing and ticketing without the need for middlemen and gatekeepers.
Distribution would finally be back under the airline's control and there would be a lot more innovation.
NDC sounds awesome, and so do simplified fare rules. Are there any seriously misaligned incentives that would prevent it from happening, or is it more just general bureaucratic slowness?
The NDC spec is still evolving (and suffering from a bit of mission creep). There's also the chicken and egg problem - airlines aren't going to invest in building in-house NDC based hosting and distribution platforms until there's enough market demand for it. Market demand wont appear until airlines start distributing over NDC.
I'd have thought too that the GDS providers aren't exactly thrilled by the prospect of being easily cut out of the distribution chain... There will still be a need for aggregators though since not all travel providers will have the technical know-how or desire to develop their own NDC capable platforms/software. NDC would just level the playing field a bit.
Travel providers could then connect directly to an airline's NDC API for scheduling, pricing and ticketing without the need for middlemen and gatekeepers.
Distribution would finally be back under the airline's control and there would be a lot more innovation.