In 2025, over 60% of airlines have adopted NDC to some degree, with industry frontrunners like American Airlines, Lufthansa, and Emirates leading the shift. Yet, only 27% have fully implemented offer-and-order capabilities, highlighting the opportunity and urgency for corporate sales teams to act.
Why It Matters Now
With global adoption on the rise, airline corporate sales teams must now understand NDC’s impact on distribution and offer management. Compared to GDS, NDC enables:
- Greater personalization and richer content delivery from ancillaries to product bundles, empowering better contract terms and upsell potential.
- Direct integration via APIs, enabling real-time pricing and inventory updates that bypass outdated systems like EDIFACT and reduce dependency on intermediaries.
- Enhanced data control and transparency, a powerful edge in corporate negotiations and targeted offer creation.
Key Areas Corporate Sales Teams Should Watch
1. Regional NDC Adoption Patterns
While industry-wide adoption surpasses 60%, corporate travel bookings still lag. In 2022, only about 4% of corporate aviation transactions were through NDC; this rose only slightly to 2% in 2024, underscoring the slow uptake in the B2B realm. This gap presents both a challenge and an opportunity.
2. Offer & Order Innovation: A Rare Gap
Just 27% of airlines have advanced transformation in offer and order capabilities, a crucial step beyond mere NDC certification.
3. Core Benefits of NDC Adoption
- Personalization & Ancillaries: Offers such as bundled fares and tailored ancillaries enhance the corporate travel experience and differentiate your commercial proposition.
- Real-Time Capabilities: Enable dynamic pricing, on-the-fly availability, and agile response to booking flux.
- Control & Cost Savings: Direct distribution cuts reliance on GDS commissions and empowers sales teams with data for strategic negotiation.
4. Key Challenges to Navigate
- Legacy infrastructure & resistance: Transitioning from EDIFACT systems remains a major internal hurdle.
- Channel fragmentation: NDC isn’t standardized across airlines yet, complicating IBM integration across platforms.
- Need for seller readiness: Many TMCs and agents lack NDC capabilities even as airline adoption grows, which impairs corporate uptake.
Strategic Actions for Corporate Sales Teams
- Audit GDS reliance vs NDC readiness in your distribution strategy.
- Partner with aggregators and tech providers to fill content and offer gaps.
- Pilot NDC-powered offer creation for key corporate clients to build trust and agility.
- Train your salesforce and TMC partners on NDC advantages and execution to overcome adoption fears.
Driving Corporate Success in the NDC Era
The shift from GDS to NDC is more than a technological upgrade; it’s a strategic lever for corporate sales teams. Airlines that fully leverage NDC capabilities can deliver highly personalized offers, optimize ancillary sales, and gain real-time insights that directly impact revenue and client satisfaction. For corporate travel teams, understanding and acting on this transformation is no longer optional; it’s essential to stay competitive and strengthen partnerships.
To seize this opportunity:
- Evaluate your current GDS dependency and map out where NDC integration can accelerate offer creation.
- Collaborate with airline partners and technology providers to access rich, dynamic content.
- Equip your salesforce and TMC partners with training and tools to deliver NDC-enabled offers confidently.
Unlock Your NDC Potential
Discover how SOAR AI can help your corporate sales team measure readiness, implement intelligent offer management, and drive measurable results in the NDC landscape. Take the first step toward smarter, faster, and more personalized corporate sales today.
