NDC fares are airline tickets distributed through IATA's New Distribution Capability standard, and they are not a uniform opportunity — they are an operational decision that has to be made route by route, airline by airline.
Most TMCs already understand that the future is hybrid GDS + NDC; the harder question is which routes deserve NDC integration today, and what the hidden integration costs look like once the deal closes. This article focuses on that decision: when an NDC fare is actually worth pursuing, how to access it without breaking your mid-back office, and the operational risks that consistently get underestimated.
For the foundational comparison of GDS vs NDC and the high-level dual-source case, see GDS vs NDC: What Every TMC Needs to Know. This article is the next layer down — once you've decided to adopt NDC, how do you actually run it?
For the foundational comparison of GDS vs NDC and the high-level dual-source case, see GDS vs NDC: What Every TMC Needs to Know. This article is the next layer down — once you've decided to adopt NDC, how do you actually run it?
When NDC Fares Are Actually Worth It — A Route-Level Framework
NDC fares deliver real value on a narrow set of routes and create operational drag on others. The right starting question is not "should we adopt NDC?" — it is "which of my top 20 routes by booking volume should be on NDC, and which should stay on GDS?" The framework below is the one to apply.
Routes where NDC is the right call
• High-frequency point-to-point routes on carriers actively expanding NDC — for example Singapore Airlines (KrisConnect), Cathay Pacific, and Qatar Airways have publicly committed to growing NDC distribution. On these airlines, NDC channels can carry exclusive fares or ancillary bundles that are not visible through GDS.
• Routes where the corporate client has negotiated NDC-specific rates — increasingly common with major APAC carriers, where the corporate negotiated fare is filed only through the airline's NDC channel.
• Leisure-adjacent and SME corporate accounts — where ancillary bundles (seat, baggage, lounge) drive perceived value, and the NDC offer format showcases those bundles natively.
• White-label IBE platforms targeting direct consumer traffic — agencies building their own booking portal benefit from richer NDC content at the search level.
Routes where GDS is still the right call
• Complex multi-airline itineraries — interline ticketing, through-check baggage, and codeshare logic are still primarily handled through GDS infrastructure. NDC interline capabilities continue to develop under IATA's Offers & Orders programme, but operational maturity varies significantly by airline and platform pairing.
• Strict corporate policy-controlled accounts — see the policy enforcement section below; NDC offer structures don't map cleanly to traditional policy fields.
• High-change-rate travellers — if your traveller base reschedules frequently, the inconsistent change fee rules across airline NDC programmes generate servicing overhead that erodes the fare savings.
• Group bookings and tour series — most airline NDC programmes still don't support group inventory or tour series pricing.
How TMCs Access NDC Fares Today — With the Costs No One Quotes Upfront
There are three routes to NDC content, and the choice between them depends almost entirely on scale and existing tech stack. The headline cost — the integration fee or the aggregator subscription — is rarely the real cost. The certification time, the response latency, and the ongoing maintenance overhead are where the budget actually goes.
1. Direct airline API connection
A direct connection to each airline's NDC API — Singapore Airlines KrisConnect, Cathay Pacific NDC, Qatar Airways NDC. This gives the deepest content access and the lowest per-transaction cost at scale. The less-visible cost is certification: each airline runs its own NDC certification programme, and the timeline from API access to production booking is typically measured in months and varies by airline. This route is practical mainly for TMCs with dedicated tech teams or for agencies concentrated on two to three carriers.
2. NDC aggregator
Aggregators such as Verteil, TPConnects, and Duffel consolidate NDC content from multiple airlines into a single API connection. The headline benefit is real — one integration unlocks dozens of carriers. The less-discussed tradeoffs are response latency (an additional integration layer typically introduces some search-time overhead, with the actual impact depending on architecture and route mix) and feature parity: airline-specific NDC features such as loyalty miles upgrade bundling or fare-by-name may not always pass through the aggregator interface cleanly.
3. IBE or booking tool with built-in NDC support
The lowest-friction path for most agencies is a booking engine that already handles GDS and NDC content in one search response. An IBE pre-integrated with Amadeus, Sabre, Travelport, and NDC content simultaneously — such as Forecepts' SWIFT IBE — means an agency can present GDS and NDC fares side by side without managing the underlying connections or certifications. The tradeoff is platform dependency: you inherit the platform's NDC coverage list, not your own.
The Hybrid Booking Trap: When GDS and NDC Share the Same Itinerary
The most underestimated operational problem with NDC adoption is what happens when a single corporate itinerary contains both a GDS PNR and an NDC Order Reference. This is the everyday case once NDC is layered onto an existing GDS-based programme — and the back-office implications are larger than the savings on the NDC segment.
Reconciliation runs on two different identifiers
GDS bookings settle through ARC or BSP under a PNR. NDC bookings settle through the airline's own order management system under an Order Reference. Mid-back office systems built on the PNR data structure have to be extended to read, store, and reconcile Order References — and the data formats are not standardised across airlines. The result is reconciliation work that used to be batch-automated becomes manual exception handling.
Refunds and ADMs come back through different channels
A GDS refund processes through the GDS itself, with standardised ADM (Agency Debit Memo) workflows when the airline disputes a transaction. NDC refunds and ADMs come directly from the airline, often through a portal or email channel, and the audit trail does not flow back into the GDS history. TMCs running both channels need a unified ADM tracking process that doesn't rely on the GDS as the single source of truth.
Reporting and commercial analytics fragment
Standard TMC reporting tools — fare audit, savings tracking, commission tracking — were designed around GDS data. NDC bookings either need to be loaded into the same reporting layer manually, or the reporting layer needs to be rebuilt to accept both content sources natively. Mid-market TMCs frequently discover this only after they've booked their first quarter of NDC volume.
For a deeper look at how a properly designed mid-back office handles mixed-source bookings, see Forecepts' Vault Technology for Mid-Back Office Credit Card Storage case study — the same architectural pattern applies to mixed PNR/Order Reference data.
Other Operational Risks to Plan For
Beyond reconciliation, three other risks consistently come up six months into an NDC programme — usually when something goes wrong, not before.
Ticket change and refund fragmentation during disruption
GDS changes follow a standardised workflow regardless of airline. NDC changes are processed directly with each airline, and each airline defines its own rules, timelines, and service channels. During irregular operations — weather delays, schedule changes, geopolitical disruption — the absence of a unified change mechanism becomes a serious servicing problem. Agencies managing high-volume NDC bookings should negotiate servicing SLAs directly with airlines or their aggregator before committing at scale, not after the first major disruption.
Policy enforcement on NDC offer structures
Most TMC corporate policy engines were built around GDS fare rules — fare class, refundability, advance purchase. NDC offer structures, where a bundle may include seat selection, baggage, and a change-fee waiver in one price, do not map cleanly to those traditional policy fields. Corporate travel management platforms such as Concur, Cytric, and Navan have all announced NDC capabilities, but the depth of policy enforcement on NDC content varies by platform and by airline integration. For accounts with strict policy enforcement requirements, GDS remains the more predictable channel today, and this gap is one of the more common reasons TMCs pilot NDC and then scale back.
Duty of care data feeds
NDC booking data does not automatically flow into traveller risk management platforms the way GDS data does — the integration has to be built. Before adding NDC volume to a managed account, confirm that the booking data reaches your risk management feed in a format your duty of care monitoring can read. For the full operational picture of how a TMC builds duty of care capability, see Corporate Travel Risk Management: How TMCs Protect Travellers.
