Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) received from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) the highest level of certification for its digital merchandising of the airline’s onboard products and features available to travel retailers. This means that when travel agents and retailers are making air travel booking for guests, they will be able to see images of the seats and the layout on board. In addition, passengers can purchase additional services when available.
With this new capability, Saudia will have the ability to provide IATA-accredited travel agencies a full view — displayed through rich media content — of the fare for family products and dynamic pricing as listed on www.saudia.com. Historically, the platform used by the travel retail industry aggregated text-based information with basic product facts about the onboard specifications. This means that guests do not have a way to view the product and have a perspective of what it looks like prior to boarding the aircraft.
The New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard introduced by IATA is an XML-based data transmission standard that was launched for the development and market adoption of a new standard for merchandising airline products.
IATA’s aim with the implementation of the NDC standard is to enhance the capability of communications between airlines and travel agents. The NDC standard enables the travel industry to transform the way air products are retailed to corporate, leisure and business travelers.
Saudia achieved the highest certification from IATA based on the full-scale functionality that travel retailers can now have access to, enabling them to offer guests the option to purchase Wifi packages, additional baggage, bundling of air and non-air products, and seat selection at the point of sale.
The certificate was awarded to Saudia during the 73rd IATA Annual General Meeting held in Cancun, Mexico last week.
Saudi Arabian Airlines Director General Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser received the award from IATA Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac.

Source: Arab News