Qatar Airways has become the first airline in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region and second globally to achieve the International Air Transport Association’s (Iata) NDC Level 3 Certification, demonstrating its use of the latest technological standards in providing information about airfares and other services to customers and travel agents.

NDC ensures that customers have fast access to full fare and travel product information, making for better decisions and easier transactions for travellers.

Iata has led this industry-wide initiative to standardise the way that airlines and travel service providers communicate with one another and customers. This certification, the highest level to be achieved under Iata’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) Certification Programme, provides increased transparency and speed of communication, allowing customers access to a wider choice of products and services, enabling them to make more informed buying decisions.

Qatar Airways chief commercial officer, Ehab Amin, said: “As a global business with a global presence, we want to make it easier for customers to access our growing global network and range of products and services. As choices become more complex, we have to provide ways to access them more simply. That is what NDC is all about for Qatar Airways: improving the experience for our passengers.”

Iata director NDC Program, Yanik Hoyles, said: “Congratulations to Qatar Airways on achieving the first Level 3 Certification on NDC standard 17.2 in the Africa and Middle East Region. Beginning with their participation with the full trial and live deployment of NDC, Qatar Airways has been a leader in the region in supporting NDC. It is a standard that is modernising the way that airline products are presented through travel agents, helping to deliver a fuller and more transparent shopping experience to travelers.”

Technology provider TPConnects has been chosen to provide the technology link between airline, service providers and customers to a new global standard. TPConnects chief executive officer, Rajendran Vellapalath, said: "TPConnects is proud to work with Qatar Airways to facilitate the certification process and to be the first airline in the region to achieve the Level 3 Certification on the latest NDC standard. Travel Agents using TPConnects NDC Certified B2B Aggregator Platform and Booking Engine will be able to access Qatar Airways prices, inventory and fares directly, including ancillary and fare family content, using NDC Offers and Orders. TPConnects is committed to work with IATA to further implement NDC and to support the evolution of this new messaging standard."

Qatar Airways was voted Skytrax ‘World’s Best Airline’ by travellers from around the world earlier this year. Qatar’s national flag carrier also won a raft of other major awards at this year’s ceremony, including ‘Best Airline in the Middle East,’ ‘World’s Best Business Class’ and ‘World’s Best First Class Airline Lounge.'

Qatar Airways operates a modern fleet of more than 200 aircraft to a network of more than 150 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America. The airline is launching a host of exciting new destinations planned for the remainder of this year and 2018, including Canberra, Australia; Chiang Mai, Thailand and Cardiff, UK to name just a few. - TradeArabia News Service