Vipservice Corporate Business launches Vipservice Smart Workshop for employees

At the end of December 2021, Vipservice corporate business launched a series of educational events for employees labeled Vipservice smart Workshop. Its purpose is to share knowledge and exchange expert opinions between colleagues in the corporate unit and suppliers including airlines, hotels and transport companies.

This educational project will allow Vipservice corporate business employees to get acquainted with advanced technologies in business travel and receive first-hand information fr om the company's partners. The first in a series of training events was a workshop for employees of the operational and commercial department with Finnair.

The meeting was dedicated to the prospects of NDC technology as a new format for the distribution of aviation services. NDC is a technical standard for data transmission to sell air tickets and additional services from airlines. The technology was introduced as an alternative to EDIFACT protocol used in the global distribution systems GDSs. Airlines have voiced interest in a more personalized service and taking more control over how tickets are distributed.

Maria Anufrieva, head of Finnair's representative office in Russia, explained how NDC is changing the aviation market, just as e-tickets did 14 years ago. Then Galina Polishchuk, Managing Director of Vipservice Corporate Business, shared her strategic vision of how business travel companies may effectively switch to NDC while benefiting corporate clients.

What's the benefit?

The new NDC standard opens up access to personalized offers and additional services, from Wi-Fi and special meals on board to a VIP lounge. This is also possible for corporate customers. Agencies will be able to offer passengers rich airline content, while corporate clients will be given a wider choice of customized service packages.

How soon will we transfer to NDC?

The transition to NDC will be gradual but inevitable. For example, Finnair will fully transfer the distribution of services to NDC by 2025 and abandon the previous Edifact standard. Some airlines may “migrate” to the new standard in 3-5 years and others will switch to a hybrid ticketing model and continue to cooperate with GDS systems. The market is gradually moving towards a multi-modal system wh ere large technology companies create their own NDC aggregators. They, turn, coexist with booking platforms.

What does this mean for corporate clients?

In the business travel market, the new technology will be implemented step by step. By the way, Vipservice has already developed its own transport aggregator TicketMi, which offers NDC aviation content, as well as services from railway and bus companies in Russia and the CIS. Vipservice is planning to provide clients with access to an even larger palette of travel content from the single source.