The way airlines sell and manage bookings is undergoing a considerable transformation. While traditional industry standards have shaped airline distribution for decades, they no longer provide the flexibility airlines need to improve personalisation, create new revenue streams, and enhance the passenger experience in line with expectations generated outside of the travel industry.

To address these limitations, IATA introduced New Distribution Capability (NDC) and ONE Order, two key standards designed to modernise airline retailing. Together, they support the transition towards Offer & Order, an approach that simplifies how airlines create and manage bookings from start to finish.

In this video, Cayetano Damas-Alcala, Head of Product Marketing at Amadeus, speaks to Al Tredinnick, Head of Commercial at 15below, breaking down two of the most pivotal airline retailing standards: NDC, ONE Order, and the overarching concept of Offer & Order. With the rapid evolution in how airlines manage bookings, understanding these standards is crucial for enhancing efficiency, unlocking new revenue opportunities, and elevating the passenger experience.

This is the second instalment in our series of videos created in partnership with Amadeus, where we explore key industry trends shaping the future of airline operations and passenger communications. In our first video of this series, we discussed the evolution of the Amadeus-15below partnership and how we are working together to improve disruption management. 

Understanding NDC, ONE Order, and Offer & Order

What is IATA's new distribution capability (NDC)?

New Distribution Capability (NDC) is a set of technical standards developed by IATA to bring new retailing capabilities to the travel industry and travel distribution. The technology’s primary objective is to provide a more transparent and dynamic way of distributing and selling airline products, offering more tailored and relevant offers to travelers and an improved shopping experience. 

Traditionally, airlines have relied on rigid fare classes, meaning tickets are grouped into fixed categories such as economy, premium economy, and business class. Each fare class comes with strict rules on pricing, refunds, and flexibility, regardless of the individual passenger’s needs.

Similarly, static pricing structures mean ticket prices are set in advance and updated infrequently. This limits an airline’s ability to adjust prices based on real-time demand or personalise offers for passengers.

With NDC, airlines can:

• Create dynamic offers: Move beyond static pricing, bundling services like seat selection, baggage, and lounge access into personalised packages.
• Take greater control: Offer more competitive and differentiated products across direct and indirect channels.
• Deliver a richer booking experience: Provide detailed product descriptions and high-quality images to personalised bundles, helping travel sellers and travellers make more informed choices.

What is ONE Order for airlines?

ONE Order simplifies how airlines manage bookings by replacing multiple industry records - PNRs (Passenger Name Records, unique codes that act as a reference for a flight or a booking), EMDs (Electronic Miscellaneous Documents which are issued when passengers add a bag to their booking for example), and tickets - with a single order reference.

Today, if a passenger books a flight with ancillaries - such as extra baggage and seat selection - these are stored separately in different systems: the ticket is stored in a Passenger Name Record (PNR), the baggage allowance is an Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD), and the payment is linked to yet another system. If the passenger later decides to change their flight, the airline must manually update multiple systems, which increases the risk of errors and delays.

However, the goal of this transition reaches further. It aims to ensure that rather than visiting multiple websites, making separate purchases and payments, customers can buy a variety of services (e.g. flights, flight ancillaries, transfers, hotels, destination experiences) directly from an airline’s website, all stored and managed in one single order. This brings the shopping basket concept to the airline industry, making it easier to add or remove services and plan travel.

One of the key benefits Offer and Order introduces and something the traditional PNR cannot support, is the ability to create differentiated offers for each traveller within the same order. This means individual preferences, pricing, and service selections can be managed per passenger, even when travelling as part of a group.

With all elements of a trip linked together through one digital record, travel companies will be able to collaborate more easily to provide a better experience, overcoming the frustrations faced by travelers today.

With ONE Order, airlines can:

• Reduce complexity: Move away from traditional PNRs and ticketing structures.
• Enhance operational efficiency: Unify booking, payment, and servicing in a single system, reducing manual processes and improving accuracy.

What is Offer & Order management for airlines?

An Offer Management system enables airlines to easily define and control what to sell, when, where, and at what price to optimize pricing. It offers more dynamicity and richness in the way offers are managed. It enables the creation and deployment of relevant, optimized, richer, and continuously priced offers that are competitive and are responsive to customers’ price sensitivity and can be purchased via any channel and at any point of the traveler’s journey.

Offer & Order management is a retail-driven approach that combines NDC (how passenger offers are exposed) and ONE Order (how passenger orders are managed) into a single, unified process. Instead of using different systems for fares, bookings, servicing, and payments, airlines can manage everything within one retailing framework.

By transitioning to Offer and Order management systems, airlines will be able to work with partners across the entire travel ecosystem to:

• Deliver seamless, end-to-end retailing: From initial search to booking, payment, and servicing.
• Move away from fare classes and legacy booking codes: Enabling more flexible and dynamic pricing.
• Improve financial returns: By integrating order management with accounting and reporting systems.

How does Offer & Order work in practice?

With Offer & Order, all elements of the booking are consolidated into a single, flexible order. If the passenger changes their flight, the updated details are automatically reflected across all components - flight, baggage, and payment - without the need for manual intervention. By centralising all booking elements, airlines can reduce manual processes, minimise errors, and improve the speed and accuracy of servicing passenger requests such as flight modifications, baggage updates, or refunds.

With Nevio, Amadeus’s answer to Offer & Order, airlines will need to prepare for this transition very soon to remain competitive in an evolving marketplace and to support the industry’s goal of all airlines adopting the Offer & Order system by 2030. Airlines that start working to adopt Offer & Order principles today will be better positioned to enhance revenue, streamline operations, and meet rising passenger expectations.

Why does this matter for airlines?

Airlines are moving towards Offer & Order-based retailing because legacy standards can limit growth, flexibility, and efficiency. Adopting these new standards unlocks key benefits:

• Enhanced personalisation: Present tailored offers with bundled fares, dynamic pricing, and richer product descriptions.
• Simplified operations: A single order structure improves efficiency, reduces manual processes, and minimises errors.
• Greater control over distribution: Airlines can manage and service products more effectively across both direct and indirect channels.

A timeline for NDC, ONE Order, Offer & Order, and Nevio

The transition to Offer & Order is a gradual process, requiring coordinated efforts across the industry.

As full industry adoption of Amadeus Nevio – and, more generally, Offer and Order – grows, airlines will need to prepare for this transition by adapting their retailing strategies and aligning with modern order management practices.

What’s next?

Adopting these new retailing standards is a long-term transition, requiring close collaboration across the industry to ensure a smooth transformation. Solutions like Amadeus Nevio are being developed to support airlines along this journey, enabling a value-phased adoption where airlines can see early benefits while maintaining business continuity.

At 15below, we are committed to supporting airlines through this transition, ensuring passenger communications evolve alongside new retailing models—keeping travellers informed and empowered at every stage. 

Contact us today to discuss how 15below can support your airline’s transition to modern retailing.
 

Contact us