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.
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.
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.
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. Ethiopian received its ARM certification on February 2022. ARMI stands for Airline Retailing Maturity Index. From the earlier NDC certification, ARMI encompasses not only the technical capability but also the partnership deployment and value capture aspects. And measures the retailing capability of carriers in terms of, capability verification, partnership deployment and value capture.
Schema Version
Currently Ethiopian airlines is using NDC schema version 17.2 which in practice means we have all the basic capabilities available but more enhancements such as ancillaries and extras will be included in the later versions as the standard still develops.
On boarding Process
Recent updates
Available on test | Status | Title | Affected | Go-Live date |
---|---|---|---|---|
10 Jun 2024 | Live | adding corporate Airshopping and offer price RQ | Airshopping and offer price RQ | 10 Jun 2024 |
29 Jul 2024 | Live | Extra Baggage Ancillary
| Order create RS | 29 Jul 2024 |
29 Jul 2024 | Live | Labour Fare for Shopping Request
| Airshopping RS, OfferPricRS, OrderViewRS | 29 Jul 2024 |
29 Jul 2024 | Live | Read Agency Profile from File for Throttling | Airshopping RS | 29 Jul 2024 |
28 Jun 2024 | Live | Currency Change on Seat Availability | Seat map RS, seat select RQ | 29 Jul 2024 |
03 Sep 2024 | Live | Requote Call Missing in Reissue Flow | OrderCreateRQ | 30 Sep 2024 |