MTA – Mobile Travel Agents’ Managing Director says he is heartened by the number of industry heavyweights, both within Australia and overseas, approaching him to voice their concerns regarding IATA’s global  ‘New Distribution Capability’ (NDC) proposal following his much-publicised comments of 24 October.

His comments on the NDC, finally approved by IATA in October and due for beta roll out in the New Year, received strong attention from industry principles and agents’ representative organisations in Australia and New Zealand and as far afield as Asia, the US and the UK.

Mr Merricks said that while IATA has approved the new plan, fundamental issues continue to surround the new procedure and in particular the location of PNRs (passenger name records) with airlines now being able to access customer data not previously available to them prior to a ticket being issued.

“As part of the NDC, airlines will soon have access to travel agents' client contact information, preferences and other details before an airline has even been chosen,” he said.

“Add to this, via a comparison shopping component, clients will also apparently be encouraged to compare pricing and product offers from airlines.

“While it is difficult to argue against the benefits of this, it does however ring alarm bells regarding the airlines potential to use this increased capability and data and market directly to agency clients.

“Without the NDC an airline would not ordinarily have had access to this information – it may even be subject to privacy legislation.

“This leads me to believe part of the NDC standards involve the relocation of agency PNR’s because these, while currently held by travel agents in their GDS, will also be held by the airlines under the new procedure.

“This also raises concerns re the future possibility of the elimination of pre-filed fares.”

Mr Merricks added that under the new system, the possible need to contact airlines with specific requests and the location of the PNR could also have marked impact on agents’ processes and their ability to make changes to bookings quickly and efficiently.

 “Information to hand right now is murky to say the least. The industry – everywhere - needs to stay informed and very much involved if we are to make our concerns heard as an affected group internationally, and hopefully have some influence over our future.