NDC explained: offers, orders and what changes for travel sellers
In short: NDC (New Distribution Capability) is an IATA data standard that lets an airline send its own priced offers, including extras such as bags and seats, to travel sellers, and then manage the booking as an order. It sits alongside the older GDS channel rather than replacing it overnight. What you can actually book and service through NDC varies by airline and by the way you connect.
On this page: Why it exists · How a booking works · Ways to connect · Servicing · Should you adopt it? · For industry readers · FAQ
Why NDC exists
In the traditional model, airlines publish fares and rules to the industry, and a global distribution system (GDS) builds the price a seller sees. That works well for standard fares, but it makes it hard for an airline to sell its own bundles, show rich product details, or price an offer for a specific moment and customer.
NDC flips that. The seller asks the airline (directly or through an intermediary) for offers, and the airline builds and prices them itself. IATA describes NDC as a data exchange format built on offer and order management, so airlines can distribute their offers whatever the channel.
How an NDC booking works
- Shop. The seller sends a search. The airline returns offers, each a ready-priced package with an ID and an expiry time.
- Price. The seller re-checks the chosen offer to confirm price and availability, and can add extras such as seats or bags.
- Order. The seller creates an order with passenger details and a form of payment. The airline confirms it.
- Service. Date changes, extras, cancellations and refunds are requests against the order.
- Fulfil. Many airlines still issue an e-ticket and EMDs (for extras) behind the order. IATA’s longer-term aim is for orders to replace those documents.
Ways to connect
| Route | How it works | Typical trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Direct to the airline | You build to the airline’s own NDC API, usually after a commercial agreement and testing. | Most control and content; most build and maintenance work per airline. |
| Through an aggregator | A technology provider, which may be a GDS, connects to many airlines’ NDC APIs and gives you one connection. | Faster coverage; you depend on which airlines and features the aggregator supports. |
| Airline agency portal | A web portal from the airline for agents, often built on its NDC content. | No build; manual work and no integration with your own systems. |
It varies: which offers, extras, payment forms and servicing functions an airline exposes depends on that airline, the version of the standard it uses, your agreement with it, and the channel you connect through. Always check the airline’s current documentation.
Servicing: where projects succeed or fail
Booking is the easy part. Agencies feel the difference after the sale:
- Changes and refunds may be fully automated for one airline and require a call or portal visit for another.
- Schedule changes arrive as order notifications, which your system must pick up and act on.
- Mid and back office tools must record orders, tickets, EMDs and payments correctly, or reconciliation becomes manual.
- Staff need to know which bookings came through which channel, because the servicing steps differ.
Should your agency adopt NDC? A checklist
- Which airlines carry most of your volume, and do they offer content or prices through NDC that you can’t get elsewhere?
- Do you need direct connections, or does an aggregator already cover your key airlines?
- Which servicing functions (changes, refunds, seats, bags) does each airline support through your chosen route?
- Can your mid and back office handle orders, EMDs and payments without manual work?
- What forms of payment and settlement does each airline accept for NDC bookings?
- How will you compare and de-duplicate the same flight arriving from NDC and GDS content?
- Who maintains each connection when the airline updates its API or version?
How NDC relates to GDS and LCC channels
For most sellers the answer is “both”. GDSs still carry large volumes of traditional content and have added NDC aggregation. Low-cost carriers often use their own direct APIs, which may or may not follow the NDC standard. A typical modern booking engine therefore normalises content from GDS, NDC and LCC sources side by side. See the Future of GDS article for the commercial side.
For industry readers
- Standard and governance: NDC messages are maintained under IATA’s Passenger Standards Conference by the Shop-Order Standards Board, through Offer, Order and Customer Payment groups. IATA currently refers to the 2024 generation of the standard as NDC 24.1.
- Origins: IATA links the NDC programme to Resolution 787 (October 2012).
- Orders beyond NDC: ONE Order aims to replace the PNR, e-ticket and EMD with a single order record, which IATA says are being gradually phased out. It is linked to Resolution 797 (June 2017) and builds on NDC messaging.
- Common messages: AirShopping, OfferPrice, ServiceList, SeatAvailability, OrderCreate, OrderRetrieve, OrderReshop, OrderChange, OrderCancel and OrderChangeNotif. Airlines implement subsets and sometimes their own extensions.
- Practical tip: design your data model around offers and orders from the start, and treat the PNR and ticket as fulfilment artefacts, not the core record.
FAQ
Is NDC an API? NDC is a standard for the messages. Each airline’s NDC API is its own implementation of that standard.
Does NDC replace the GDS? Not today. Most sellers use both, and GDSs themselves now aggregate NDC content.
Is NDC content always cheaper? No. Some airlines offer different fares or bundles through NDC, and some apply charges to other channels, but this depends entirely on the airline and your agreement.
Do I need IATA accreditation to use NDC? Requirements are set by each airline and channel. Check with the airline or your aggregator.
Sources
- IATA: New Distribution Capability (NDC) (checked 9 October 2026)
- IATA: ONE Order (checked 9 October 2026)
- IATA developer portal: NDC (checked 9 October 2026)