Ethiopian Airlines NDC FAQ

NDC (New Distribution Capability) is an industry initiative launched and supported by IATA for the development and market adoption of a new, XML-based data transmission standard (NDC Standard). The NDC Standard enhances the capability of communications between the airlines and travel agents to meet the future need of Airline Retailing.

API stands for Application Programming Interface. It consists of a set of routines, protocols and tools that can be used to create software applications through which two software programmes can communicate with each other.

NDC API is the general term for a connection to an airline’s offer and order management system using the IATA NDC standard.

Every technology provider that aggregates content from airlines, car rental companies, hotels, etc. an NDC aggregator is Every technology provider that gathers content via NDC and uses the airlines’ NDC APIs as a source.

In the modern era of travel that involves collaborative communication between and among Airline, sellers and travelers, NDC has major advantages for all the participating entities. For sellers it has benefits such as: - provide rich customer experience, sell wider range of paid extras, access to lower fares, avoid airlines new GDS surcharge etc. and for travelers has benefit such as: - access to lower price, improved end to end booking experience, transparency etc.

There are two different options to connect to Ethiopian NDC.

1. Direct connection - Travel agents can connect directly to the airline to shop, order, pay and issue the ticket and ancillary products. This option may be appealing to large travel agencies, travel management companies (TMCs) and online travel agencies (OTAs) with the IT resources to support a direct integration with an airline.

2. Connect via aggregator - An aggregator is a technology provider that serves as an intermediary between the airline and the agency community. It provides a platform and IT services to support the transmission of NDC messages. A variety of companies have stepped into this space, including (but not limited to) the traditional GDSs

Offer Management refers to the capability of airlines to create and return priced Offers in response to shopping requests from travel agents. Offer Management is included in the NDC shopping request from a third party, such as a travel agent, and triggers an Offer creation from an airline, depending on the items contained by the request.

Order Management is the ability for the airline to create, store and manage its Orders. It can be as simple as ensuring that the Passenger Number References (PNR), E-tickets (ET) and Electronic Miscellaneous Documents (EMD) are referenced with a single identifier, i.e. an Order ID.

Ethiopian has obtained Level 3 NDC Certification from IATA. Level 3 means that we have Offer & Order Management capabilities. In addition to all the booking and selling capabilities, key elements of servicing like changes in NDC booking is also supported.

Currently Ethiopian airlines is using NDC schema version 17.2 which in practice means we have all the basic capabilities available

We will upgrade to latest versions as we progress in this NDC journey. For sellers connecting via aggregators the version mapping will be by the hand of the aggregator.

  • Full availability of Ethiopian airlines published flight schedules and flight information including codeshare flights

  • Ability to sell all published Ethiopian Airlines fares

  • Ability to sell a variety of Ethiopian Airlines private fares for authorized sellers.

  • Multi payment method BSP / Cash

  • Exchange, refund void - Update Travel Document

  • Seat Availability and select

  • Add Free Meal, for international flights

  • Add Special services such as meet and assist, wheelchair

  • Add / Update Frequent flier number / loyalty number

  • NDC portal for sellers More enhanced servicing capabilities such as auto-refund, auto exchange, associate, name change etc

  • Ancillaries

  • Airline profile

  • Rich contents

  • Schema upgrade to latest version

For NDC bookings currently the seller can negotiation with the local Ethiopian office / digital sales to get a commission of for sales made via NDC. Or sometimes they may add a service charge on top of the flight amount. This should be stated on the agreement document to be activated and applicable on the system.

Yes, there is an NDC agreement for sellers. The NDC agreement will be shared and get signed by the local Ethiopian office or digital sales.

  • Via BSP channel: All FOPs supported by respective country’s BSP.

  • Via Non-BSP channel: Only cash FOP is supported currently and Credit Card FOP will be enabled soon.

There will be less room for errors in NDC but any violations will be subject to ADM as defined in Ethiopian Airlines policies.

There Is a refund and exchange capability by the NDC platform. But in some cases is there are situations that the auto refund doesn’t work, it will be queued to the agents to be handled manually. Refunds shall be processed as per normal practice to the respective FOP used at the time of sales and as per the applicable Fare rules and Ethiopian Airlines Policies / Procedures.

For the technical queries there is a dedicated Digital service support Team and can be reached via email - DigitalServicesSupport@ethiopianairlines.com

Partners should contact the local Ethiopian airlines office to understand the different connectivity options available and agree on the selected solution. The partner then guided to the onboarding process. The process has the below major steps

  • The area office makes an NDC agreement with the travel agency specially on commission, service charge, currency etc.

  • Upon the agreement Digital service support team will create a test account on the partner management portal using the agency provided details like IATA number, address etc.

  • The digital team forward test API Collection to the partner (Client) to begin the integration and test

  • Upon completion of the agreement and test, the area office create a production account on the partner management portal, set the deposit amount.

  • When created the credential to use the production system will be automatically sent to the partner provided email address

  • The digital team will notify the Production API endpoints

  • The client starts using the production account to sale on their online channel.

Currently group bookings are not available on NDC

There are no charges for use of the platform; no charges of setup and integration.

From the Ethiopian airlines partner portal, there is a ‘Join now’ button. You may click and fill the require information and submit. The respective Ethiopian airlines area office personnel will contact the partner via the provided address.

If all the required commercial agreements are completed and under normal circumstances 3 – 4 weeks, the partner will be certified to use Ethiopian NDC.

For Functional queries such as failed refund, information about amount and fare rule , there is team assist and can be reached via email - DigitalService@ethiopianairlines.com

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