MORE VALUE IN THE AIR

IATA is calling on all partners and stakeholders involved in passenger travel to work together to deliver greater value to passengers.
At the opening of the association\’s World Passenger Symposium in Dublin, IATA\’s director general and CEO, Tony Tyler said: \”Aviation makes possible $2.2 trillion worth of economic activity and supports some 57 million jobs around the globe. Every day more than 8 million passengers take advantage of the safety, speed and convenience of air travel; and airfares are one-third lower, in real terms, than they were 20 years ago. It truly is the mass transit system for the global economy. But our customers expect more. By working together as an industry with a common vision we can deliver even greater value to air travellers.\”
He pointed out that: \”Our passengers are focused on value and their expectations are high and rising. That means we must continuously examine, modernize and evolve our offering. The goal is to ensure that what we see as \”service\” actually means \”value\” to our customers.\”
In this respect, Tyler focused on two areas where the industry can add greater value to the trip experience — how customers shop for air travel; and how they get through airports and stay connected to travel suppliers.
And he pointed to IATA\’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) as a way to close the gap, commenting: \”The NDC standard will unleash innovation and that will mean change. But, let me assure you of a few things. NDC will operate within the same privacy laws that govern every other business. That is no change from today. But, by giving travel agents more information, there will be greater transparency.\”
He added: \”We are making strong progress on NDC. The application for approval of Resolution 787, which is the foundation document for NDC, is before the US Department of Transportation (DOT), and we are optimistic of a positive outcome in the fourth quarter that will permit adoption of schemas under development. Meanwhile, we are encouraging airlines, travel agents and technology providers to join the pilot phase which is expected to continue through 2014.\”
Go to http://www.iata.org for more.