Corporate Travel Works to Improve Air Bookings But a Full Tech Fix Is Still Elusive

The world of corporate travel has finally united to bring a better air booking experience to clients, even if no one is quite sure what form this will take going forward. Over the summer, the various big dogs of travel management and distribution announced a variety of partnerships to finally figure out how to bring airline merchandising and packaging into the corporate travel space. While IATA’s New Distribution Capability standards have existed since 2012, adoption by airlines has been scattershot. Not much has emerged from existing partnerships in corporate travel, although industry experts believe the latest round of partnerships and trials will be much more fruitful. "It's certainly true that one-off initiatives haven't been great but we are seeing an emerging critical mass around NDC," said Robert Albert, CEO of Routehappy by ATPCO, which has led the way on bringing rich content to air shopping. "But the real issues are beyond the question of which pipes are being used to transact and manage a given itinerary. What airlines and travelers both need is a rich, comparable shopping experience. In other words, what is the traveler being offered at a given price point? That answer needs to include easy-to-understand fare features and restrictions, an indication of compliance, and, of course, full understanding of what the experience going to be like." The challenges faced by travel management companies in adopting these standards reflects a deeper issue, though. It's one t