Travelport has signed a multiyear renewal agreement with Delta, a deal that includes New Distribution Capability (NDC) content.
Delta is collaborating with Travelport on the integration of its NDC solution into the Travelport+ platform for travel agencies. NDC gives airlines merchandizing capability, such as the bundling of offers that include ancillary options, whereas legacy distribution systems do not.
Jeff Lobl, Delta's managing director of distribution strategy and agency sales, said the airline was "pleased to extend our full content agreement as well as make Delta's NDC technology solution available to all of Travelport's agency customers."
"Together, we aim to create value by ensuring customers are presented with the best options to fit their needs for a better, more personalized shopping experience," Lobl added.
The airline has said agencies will be able to adopt Delta's NDC solution at their own pace or continue shopping Delta through legacy reservations systems.
To help agencies solve challenges with comparing NDC offers alongside traditional content, Travelport said it recently debuted its Content Curation Layer, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to sift through aggregated, multisource content and return search results that are "normalized and easier for agents and travelers to understand."
Delta in August said it inked a renewed distribution agreement with Sabre that includes NDC content.
The airline is in the early stages of NDC development. The carrier expects to have a basic selling solution connected with technology partners Google, Accelya, ARC and IATA by the end of the year. Delta said it will begin testing a basic NDC selling and servicing solution with select agency partners next year.