The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Open Allies for Airfare Transparency (Open Allies) filed a joint motion with the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) concerning IATA’s Resolution 787, the foundation document for the New Distribution Capability (NDC). The motion offers conditions that IATA and Open Allies recommend be included in what IATA is hopeful will be a timely approval of Resolution 787. The conditions to which both organizations agreed are intended to add clarity to the letter and spirit of Resolution 787.

Open Allies has agreed to withdraw its opposition to Resolution 787 subject to the implementation of these conditions.

Specifically, the conditions clarify IATA’s commitment to the core principles of Resolution 787 regarding anonymous shopping, compatibility of existing data standards with the NDC standard and the voluntary nature of the standard. They supplement IATA’s June 2013 filing with DOT which sought to further define the original IATA submission.

“We are pleased that we were able to work together with our industry partners to strengthen the principles underlying Resolution 787. These include anonymous shopping, data privacy and a voluntary open data standard available to all current and future travel technology suppliers. We urge DOT to approve Resolution 787 in a timely manner so that consumers may benefit from the greater choice and transparency in air travel shopping that the NDC standard will enable,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

IATA, Open Allies and the industry partners it represents, as well as other stakeholders also agreed to establish an industry forum to support a collaborative approach on distribution issues going forward.

NDC is an IATA-led initiative to develop an XML-based data transmission standard for communications between airlines and travel agents. The NDC standard, once developed and available, will be open to any third party, intermediary, IT provider or non-IATA member, to implement and use.

View the joint motion (pdf)

IATA press release