Finnair to launch NDC in the USA and continue promoting NDC in China
We are excited to officially launch NDC distribution in the US market following the enablement of ARC settlement in our NDC flow in July 2023. Travel agents are invited to join NDC journey with Finnair and register as NDC sellers via our registration form available on How to connect to Finnair NDC page in Finnair Easy.
In order to expedite the technology transformation and recover traditional distribution costs, we will also implement a surcharge in the EDIFACT legacy channel in the USA, effective from 2nd of October 2023. This surcharge will be applicable to itineraries originating in the USA and it will be determined based on the fare component. Each fare component will incur a surcharge of 15 EUR / equivalent in the local currency. This initiative follows our global distribution strategy, as EDIFACT surcharge is already in place within Europe and from most Asian markets (and which will be globally increased from 12€ to 15€ in September as announced in earlier). At the same time, we will add more fare products that are available only in modern digital distribution channels Finnair.com, Finnair app and Finnair NDC.
In addition to the US market launch, we will also start differentiating content between EDIFACT and NDC distribution in China. We have launched new digital distribution in China with travel partners already several years ago and have seen significant progress during the past years. From 17th of October 2023 onwards, travel sellers in China will also have a clearer NDC offering having access to the best third party content only via modern retailing channels. Furthermore, the Light fare product will be removed from EDIFACT distribution also in China starting 1st of January 2024.
We have previously announced our ambitious objective to discontinue support for all legacy EDIFACT content within the travel sector by the end of 2025. This aim seeks to drive significant industry-wide change and enhance customer options through the implementation of the New Distribution Capability (NDC). The moves now being introduced are logical steps on our journey towards modernized distribution, and they follow our overall global strategy.
Partners can access Finnair NDC content by establishing a direct connection to Finnair NDC APIs, utilizing Finnair Agency Sales Tool (FAST), or utilizing one of Finnair's Certified NDC Aggregators.