Spotlight: Nicola Ping on state of NDC
Travel distribution has been dominated by one topic of the last decade: New Distribution Capability (NDC).
Touted as the gamechanger for the way airlines would sell tickets; it’s not been as smooth a ride in corporate travel as we’d all hoped. And with the excitement of artificial intelligence (AI) and other new technologies, it’s taken a backseat in technology conversations.
Or has it? Even in the last few months, there has been New Distribution Capability (NDC) progress.
Nicola Ping, Global Manager of Travel Distribution at Flight Centre Travel Group, has been at the forefront of NDC discussions and finding solutions to its challenges. Having worked for British Airways, aggregator TPConnects and now steering corporate content strategy for FCM Travel’s parent company, Nicola has invaluable insights into how NDC is evolving and what it means for corporate travel programmes.
We spoke to Nicola about where we’re at with NDC today and what lies ahead.
Let’s roll back to the early 2010s
"If we think back to the original discussions around NDC, everything centred on personalisation," Nicola explains. "There were expectations that passengers would receive tailored content and fares, and rumours that airlines wouldn't need to file fares anymore. NDC meant the so-called “end of the global distribution system (GDS)”."
This vision faced practical challenges when it came to the corporate world. Not only did airline technology need an upgrade to handle this new standard, but sending a traveller personalised fare options would completely undermine the concept of a travel policy.
As Nicola points out, "The original meetings involved only airlines and IATA, with no participation from other key stakeholders. The practicalities of implementing these changes in a corporate environment weren't thoroughly thought through."
Recalibrating to a corporate reality
What began as a single approach has evolved into two distinct pathways with unique requirements: the leisure travel industry, and corporate.
Since corporate travel agencies and companies became more involved, there's been a significant reset," Nicola notes. "Leisure travel is simpler, offering more room for personalisation and serving as an entry point for airlines starting their NDC journey. The corporate side involves many more players like travel managers and corporate booking tools, making it more complex.
A big NDC challenge in business travel was the inability to seamlessly cancel and change flight bookings multiple times. Given NDC is a ‘standard’ for air travel, you’d also think there would be one way, and one fix. But as airlines have progressed with individual NDC and distribution strategies, it has not been as standard as promised.
Nicola praises the likes of Navan and AmTrav for their ability to be a voice for the entire industry, and garner real-world feedback that airlines listen to. “These early adopters have continued to embrace the industry and the value chain to move things forward for everybody. They’ve kept their eyes on the prize, which is to improve the customer experience. Without that collaboration, NDC is not going to work,” says Nicola.
Moving to actual standardisation?
Like many aspects of the world, the COVID-19 outbreak in 2010 changed NDC. Suddenly, the need to change tickets was important for everyone, and it propelled the ability to support changes in NDC.
What remained is one big pain point: the lack of standardisation. But Nicola can see the beginnings of change.
She explains, “In the last 12-18 months [speaking in February 2025], the U.S. based Airline Reporting Corporation (ARC) has really taken the bull by the horns with regards to this lack of implementation standards.”
ARC recognised it as a kind of a barrier to adoption for corporate travel, and they've done a great job of getting people all in the same room to come up with solutions. Big carriers, the GDS, technology companies and travel management companies (TMCs) have all talked through what is actually needed to support a corporate booking and the gaps.
There has already been success off the back of these conversations. In the U.S., airlines offer credit when a flight is cancelled known as ‘credit on hold’ or unused tickets, and major U.S. carriers have developed different processes to manage credit on hold in the NDC environment. Following ARC conversations, a best practice guide has been created to guide future implementations.
Progress and bugbears: where NDC is now
While the original vision of personalisation hasn't materialised, NDC has progressed and is operational in travel programmes.
Nicola recognises this progress:
What still needs work?
Standardisation aside, Nicola, in her own words, can see four obvious challenges:
Offers, orders and AI: the future
This reality shows why Nicola's role chairing the IATA Shop Order Pay Advisory Forum is so vital. Bringing the corporate travel perspective into these industry discussions helps accelerate standardisation and practical solutions.
The most exciting developments lie ahead, as Nicola outlines a vision for NDC's evolution over the next 5-10 years:
"We're likely to see a transition from NDC to offers and orders. Most airlines already offer more dynamic pricing, but they struggle with complex scenarios due to constraints from traditional PNRs (passenger name records). Moving to an offers and orders model will handle these complexities more effectively."
This transition requires a fundamental shift in how tickets are issued. Historically, tickets were issued by GDS as neutral tickets with airlines merely printed on them. For the offers and orders model to reach its full potential, airlines need to start issuing their own tickets. This is a capability that Nicola notes only a handful of carriers have implemented so far.
This evolution will enable service anywhere capabilities, allowing travellers to manage bookings seamlessly across platforms while keeping the integrity of corporate travel policies.
There’s also the matter of AI. "AI and NDC complement each other perfectly," Nicola observes. "With NDC, all required calculations for changes and cancellations are now in the API, making them readable by AI. This advances self-service options, making processes quicker and more seamless while freeing travel consultants to focus on high-value service that truly benefits clients."
Driving strategic value through distribution excellence
Nicola's unique position spanning airline, TMC, and industry governance perspectives empowers FCM Travel and Flight Centre Travel Group to navigate the complex NDC landscape with confidence. By leveraging her expertise, we can provide corporate clients with optimised content access, enhanced servicing capabilities, and strategic guidance through the evolving distribution ecosystem.
As NDC evolves and matures, Nicola's leadership will make sure that we continue to make travel content distribution simple and deliver real, tangible value for corporate travel programmes.