Delta has selected technology company Accelya to build its New Distribution Capability (NDC) platform.
Accelya, the global share leader in terms of NDC development, has deployed its platform for 19 airlines, said chief revenue officer Andrew Wilcock, including early NDC adopters American, United and Qantas.
"We'll be leveraging our extensive experience in terms of building the right strategy as Delta gets on the journey," Wilcock said.
Sara Reid, Delta's managing director of sales technology and global sales, revealed last week that Delta expects to have an NDC interface ready for trial with select partners by the end of this year. She stressed that Delta won't push NDC on travel agencies until the platform serves their needs. Reid also said that Delta won't impose a GDS surcharge on legacy content in the GDSs, nor will it pull content from GDSs to push NDC adoption.
Accelya says that its advanced NDC capabilities bring improved customer-service capabilities and more airline ancillary sales and personalized offers to customers.
The platform, said Accelya, will also help Delta move toward the more streamlined retailing process, known as Offer and Order, in which one customer record replaces the passenger name record (PNR), e-tickets, and ancillary purchase records (called electronic miscellaneous documents or EMDs) used in today's process.
Delta's selection of Accelya came two days after Amadeus announced that British Airways has selected its new Nevio solution to develop the airline's Offer and Order capabilities. British Airways is the third carrier to select Nevio since Amadeus unveiled the platform last fall, joining Finnair and Saudia.
Amadeus said that Nevio's capabilities will facilitate more dynamically created bundles. It will also support streamlined servicing of NDC-enabled bookings, including flight disruptions, on any device and in any booking channel.