What is NDC? New Distribution Capability
NDC (New Distribution Capability) is an IATA data standard that lets airlines build offers dynamically and sell them directly to any seller through an XML API, instead of relying only on fares filed in advance.
IATA launched NDC to move airline retailing from a fares-and-tickets model to an offers-and-orders model. The seller sends a shopping request with context, and the airline responds with offers it built for that specific request — including fare families, bundles and ancillary services.
The core message flow
A typical NDC booking uses AirShopping to search, OfferPrice to confirm a price, OrderCreate to book, OrderRetrieve to read the order, and OrderChange or OrderCancel to service it. Messages such as ServiceList and SeatAvailability handle extras and seat maps.
NDC in practice
Sellers can connect to NDC directly with each airline, through an aggregator, or through a GDS acting as an NDC aggregator. Each airline implements the schema version and optional features differently, so integration work is rarely “build once, connect everywhere”. Servicing — changes, refunds and disruption handling — is usually harder than shopping and booking.
Most platforms run NDC alongside GDS and LCC content for the foreseeable future, which makes a normalised internal model essential. The long-term destination of the offers-and-orders model is IATA ONE Order.