As the next step in its continuing support for Qantas’ New Distribution Capability (NDC), including the Qantas Distribution Platform (QDP), Travelport, has begun handling its first bookings with IATA’s NDC standard. The bookings are being made through Travelport Smartpoint in a live production test environment as Qantas prepares distribution of differentiated NDC content from late 2019.

This NDC connection to Qantas is the first by any global distribution system (GDS) to the carrier and enables live bookings of NDC content to be made by selected agency partners taking part in the testing programme, including ATPI Corporate Travel, Globetrotter and Travel Beyond. It comes ahead of a rollout to the wider agency community in the coming months.

The development is part of the airline’s plans for the QDP which is dedicated to offering an improved customer experience through enhanced and personalized content tailored to meet a travellers’ unique needs.

Having been the first GDS to make a live NDC booking in October 2018, Travelport has already connected to five European airlines’ NDC content. It will follow up with an API NDC connection channel through Travelport’s Trip Service API with Qantas’ content among the first to be available through this channel.