Japan Airlines accelerates its retail transformation through NDC with Amadeus

Japan Airlines (JAL) is powering its ongoing retail transformation following the recent move by the airline to deepen its strategic distribution partnership, with Amadeus becoming the airline’s recommended distribution partner for travel agents in Japan.

The implementation of Amadeus Altéa NDC will be helping JAL enhance the retailing and servicing of its offers across channels, ensuring consistent brand delivery at scale. 

JAL will be integrating its NDC contents into the Amadeus Travel Platform for distribution using Amadeus NDC Connect, which is a solution specifically designed for Altéa airlines to make their NDC content seamlessly available for travel sellers worldwide.

For Amadeus travel sellers this means that JAL’s NDC content will soon be available through the Amadeus Travel Platform through an NDC connectivity, ensuring operational continuity and access to a wide range of JAL’s content.

“New technology such as NDC will enrich our customers’ experience and support the long-term digital transformation strategy of JAL. We are aiming to differentiate our travel offers based on value rather than just price,” says Yoriyuki Kashiwagi, Executive Officer, Managing Division Passenger Sales, Japan Airlines Co. Ltd.

Cyril Tetaz, Executive Vice President, Airlines, Asia Pacific, Amadeus says: “We believe that it is key for airlines to open up innovative and exciting cross-channel retailing opportunities. Airlines are on a digital transformation journey and NDC is one of the ways they can improve their retailing capabilities. By implementing Amadeus NDC connect, Japan Airlines will be able to work in an agile and simple manner to support its long-term digital innovation strategy to effectively distribute NDC.”   

JAL is to be one of the airline partners in Amadeus’ NDC [X] program – a program to bring all the NDC activities across Amadeus under one roof. Currently, 25+ travel sellers and 16 airlines are a part of the program.  Amadeus is committed to make NDC work at scale across all channels, direct and intermediated; to ensure airlines can distribute their content easily through the channels of their choosing, and that travel sellers can compare, book and service that all content side by side regardless of source.

As part of Amadeus’ commitment to making NDC a reality, Amadeus has continually been progressing in achieving the IATA certifications on its NDC capabilities and has obtained dual Level 4 certification as both a distributor and an IT provider.