The Lufthansa Group says it is committed to working alongside South African travel agents as the airline group transitions to NDC, stressing that the move should be collaborative rather than compulsory.
In an interview with Travel News, René Koinzack, Senior Director North, East & Southern Africa for Lufthansa Group Airlines, said travel agents remained one of the group's most important distribution partners and would continue to play a role in its retail strategy.
“We strongly believe NDC is the future and we see it already working in many markets. More than 80% of our coupons are sold via NDC and our websites. We believe in the development of NDC and see huge potential for it in South Africa.”
He said shifting from GDS to NDC could be difficult and that Lufthansa was working with agents to address challenges. To support the shift, he said Lufthansa had continued improving NDC servicing, provided more training, and scaled up key account managers to help travel agents in the transition.
“What we’re seeing is that interest really is rising. It’s something that we have to manage jointly and I’m pretty sure we will be successful in South Africa with the transition,” said Koinzack.
Despite its strong support for NDC, Lufthansa said it had no plans to force South African agents away from traditional EDIFACT bookings.
“We are not excluding EDIFACT for agents and if a travel agent would like to distribute via EDIFACT, it's up to them. Because EDIFACT is not only airline distribution, I think there will always be a mix. Both airline and travel agencies have to be ready to master both forms of distribution.”
