UPDATED: Article now reflects comment received from an Emirates spokesperson.
Effective April 1, 2024, Emirates’ commission structure will be amended to 0% for all market and private fares. The new commission structure will be applicable to all journeys commencing from/to South Africa.
And on September 26, the airline will take one step further towards retailing through NDC by offering certain economy- and business-class Saver and Special Fare brands content exclusively through the NDC platforms and Emirates' direct channels.
Some industry bosses say this is premature and EK is putting the cart before the horse. Just last week, Asata CEO, Otto de Vries said he found it disappointing that the airlines engaging in this rapid migration from GDS to NDC failed to take cognisance of the needs of the retail trade. Read the story here.
A travel agency manager based in Johannesburg, told Travel News that this was the airlines’ way of trying to fast track the move to NDC.
“The shifting of the reasonable fares from the GDS will take a couple of months but NDC is coming. Agents will have no choice but to move across from GDS to NDC, even though NDC does not work efficiently yet in the travel agency environment. The back-office integration, workflow, changes and refunds controls are all relinquished. Booking NDC is laborious and unproductive. Some airlines are not even on NDC and due to the associated costs, may never be on NDC. And some carriers (Emirates is one of them – Ed) have still not gone live with NDC via Travelport or Amadeus, which means even if their competitive airfares are on NDC we still cannot access those fares.”
She added: “Agents must find the information for each ticket, where to book, how to book it, overrides, post-ticketing control, in a quagmire of information and operational processes.
“It is going to become a question of how competitive our airline products and airfares are and without accessing the options available on NDC or direct channels, travel agents do not stand a chance,” said the travel agency manager.
Stefan van der Merwe, Chief Financial Officer of the Sure Travel Group, also spoke to Travel News. His view is that Emirates is implementing this strategy to try and break the power of the GDSs more quickly.
Said Van der Merwe: “American Airlines announced the same recently and pulled all decent fares from the GDS. The problem is that the change in airlines commercial models is being steadily pushed and driven before the required technology and process is ready. Changes, refunds, and back-office procedures which are integral to the way that travel agents service their clients, are currently not available via NDC channels.
“Clients utilise travel agents for the post-ticketing advantages, like last-minute changes, rerouting, refunds and accounting. This is one of the most important parts of their client service offering.”
In a release circulated to travel agents this week, Emirates stated: “Our aim is to improve the experience of our customers and empower travel partners by providing them access to exclusive products and services via NDC.
“As our valued travel partner, you can choose to consume this exclusive and distribution-surcharge-free NDC content through all NDC platforms, which would include Emirates Gateways and your preferred GDS partner, once such GDS partner has completed NDC implementation. You will need to participate in an opt-in programme to access NDC content via GDS.”
Emirates NDC is currently not live on Travelport or Amadeus. Those GDSs confirmed they were trying to expedite the process.
On March 25, an Emirates spokesperson responded to Travel News’ request for comment, saying that, “We continue to work closely with our travel agent community to ensure they can provide value-added and personalised services to end travellers. Our NDC initiatives are a part of that journey. Emirates will continue to enrich our NDC and direct channel offerings.”
The spokesperson noted that markets across the world have been moving towards zero commission for travel agents, including in South Africa, and that from 1 April, Emirates would be aligning itself with global market practices.
