Sabre, Finnair Team Up On NDC Offers

Sabre Corporation and Finnair plan to make Finnair’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) content available through Sabre’s global distribution system (GDS). According to the plan, Sabre-connected travel agents will be able to shop, book, and manage Finnair’s NDC offers through Sabre’s Offer and Order APIs, the point-of-sale tool Sabre Red 360, as well as the corporate booking solution GetThere starting later this year.

Jenni Suomela, vice president Channel Management & Payments, Finnair, said: “Today’s travellers demand customized services and personalized experiences – which is why NDC is one of the cornerstones of Finnair commercial strategy.” Suomela continued: “With NDC we are looking to optimize our approach to product distribution and elevate our customers’ booking experience. Joint plan with Sabre targeting to make our NDC content available later this year supports our ambition to offer choice for our trade partners for our NDC-sourced content.”

Committed to boosting customer choice across the industry, Finnair last year announced its plans to phase out EDIFACT content distribution and rely exclusively on NDC by the end of 2025. With this move, the carrier expects to increase transparency in the purchasing process, strengthen ancillary sales, and ultimately increase customer satisfaction.

Kathy Morgan, vice president, Channel Delivery, Sabre Travel Solutions, observed: “NDC is a key component of Sabre’s strategic objective to create a new marketplace for personalized travel. Sitting at the crossroads of travel, we innovate across our portfolio so that our products scale end-to-end, not just for one particular link in the travel value chain.”

Morgan noted that: “We are convinced that this approach benefits our airline customers, their agency partners and the travellers we all serve”, “We are excited to be working with Finnair to distribute their NDC content. Finnair is a technologically innovative airline and together we seek to elevate the NDC booking experience and advance the adoption of offer- and order-based travel retailing.”