Finnair strengthens partnership with Amadeus to bring NDC-enabled offers to travel sellers worldwide

As air travel rapidly recovers across Finnair markets, the Finnish flag carrier is set to offer its customers more choice and a better travel experience. This is the main premise of the airline’s ambitious distribution strategy focused on driving widespread adoption of NDC. To support this goal, the carrier has extended its distribution agreement with Amadeus, strengthening further the partnership between both companies.

Finnair will begin distributing new NDC-sourced content to Amadeus’ global network of travel sellers and corporations later in Q3 2022. This is in addition to continuing the distribution of its EDIFACT-sourced content through Amadeus. This latest collaboration builds on the NDC distribution and IT agreement from 2019when Finnair was announced as the driver airline to integrate Altéa NDC with the Amadeus Travel Platform. Both companies have now agreed to continue working together to support Finnair’s NDC distribution strategy, further accelerating the industry’s retailing transformation.

NDC-sourced content from Finnair will be made available to travel sellers globally through the Amadeus Travel Platform later in Q3 2022. The content will be fully integrated into travel sellers’ usual booking environment, including Amadeus Selling Platform Connect, Amadeus Travel APIs and Amadeus Cytric Travel & Expense. This will enable them to easily search, shop, sell and service Finnair’s NDC-sourced content so that they can offer travelers more options to better serve their needs.

Jose-Luis Aragon, Regional Vice President, Air Distribution, Europe, Amadeus, said: “We are very pleased to strengthen our partnership with Finnair to support its digital transformation, in turn accelerating the industry’s journey to enhanced retailing. With global travel volumes increasing this summer season, it is important to rebuild and maintain traveler confidence. With new content powered by NDC, Finnair will be able to provide richer, more tailored offers to passengers.”

As part of its wider digital transformation strategy, Finnair is looking to effectively distribute all its content and fares through NDC by the end of 2025. Travel sellers must be able to meet the needs of today’s traveler – and NDC empowers them to deliver the same, modern shopping experience that they have come to expect in other parts of their lives.

Jenni Suomela, Vice President Channel management & Payments,  Finnair said: “We are happy to extend our partnership with Amadeus to expand the reach of our offers and bring more choice to travelers. This important step supports the fast scaling of NDC, ultimately enabling us to better serve our customers. As travel volumes are increasing, it’s a great time for us to offer new tools to our partners in the global travel community.”

This milestone is a testament to Amadeus’ commitment to enable NDC-content globally and at scale for the benefit of all travel industry players. As of July 2022, 14,000+ travel sellers in 68 markets around the world already have access to NDC-enabled content through Amadeus.

• New innovative and market-leading solution targeting small- and medium-sized enterprises to enhance their corporate travel experience

• Increased reach of most attractive Lufthansa Group offers and added customer value via TripActions’ industry leading technology

The Lufthansa Group, one of the world’s leading airline groups and industry pioneer in the area of New Distribution Capability (NDC), and TripActions, the only
all-in-one travel, corporate card, and expense solution, today announced an enhanced strategic partnership to shape the future of corporate travel. Jointly, a
customer-driven solution has been developed that allows small- and medium-sized enterprises to enjoy all the benefits they experience from the airlines of the
Lufthansa Group, covering the carriers Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Lufthansa and SWISS via the tech forward user experience of the TripActions travel platform.

While the key focus is to put the customer in control of every part of the corporate travel experience, the solution matches the rich corporate offers and programs of
the Lufthansa Group airlines with the innovative and user-first intuitive solutions of TripActions to relieve the multiple pain points of corporate travel.

“Lufthansa Group is firmly committed to delivering superior customer experiences along the entire travel journey, also for our small- and medium-sized corporate
customers”, says Tamur Goudarzi Pour, Senior Vice President Channel Management at Lufthansa Group Network Airlines and Chief Commercial Officer
SWISS. “Jointly with our strategic partner TripActions, we take a big jump towards cutting edge digital airline corporate retailing all the way from intuitive corporate
trip planning to speedy servicing. With this industry leading concept, I am very excited to grow our successful partnership with TripActions in the interests of our
Corporate Partners."

Customers will be able to book work trips using an industry-leading solution, enabling a new level of travel management that includes policy and profile
management, duty of care, sustainability solutions, real-time reporting, 24/7 customer support, and centralized billing. The partnership will enable corporate
members of Lufthansa Group PartnerPlusBenefit program to earn and redeem PartnerPlusBenefit points directly through the booking tool, with enhanced
functionalities being launched at regular intervals.

As a first step, the solution will be launched in Lufthansa Group airlines’ home markets in early 2022. Following this and over the course of the year, both teams
will work together to add enhancements to the solution, including additional redemption benefits, corporate products, and multiple languages, as well as
expansion into new markets.

“Thanks to the partnership with TripActions, we are pleased to now also provide a solution to our valued corporate customers who have previously booked via our
airline websites and have long had the desire for a suitable solution and associated enhanced functionalities,” says Stefan Kreuzpaintner, Senior Vice President Sales
for Lufthansa Group Network Airlines and Chief Commercial Officer of Lufthansa Airline. “This unique offering expands the available TMC offers in the market for
corporates, adding to the current solutions offered by our other TMC partners.”

"Providing an amazing user experience through industry leading technology has always been TripActions' top priority,” says TripActions Chief Travel Officer, Danny
Finkel. “We're excited to further our partnership with Lufthansa Group with this industry-first joint booking platform that will provide deeper technical integrations
and the unique ability to offer integrated loyalty. It’s the best of both worlds, marrying Lufthansa Group passenger experience with TripActions' user-first
experience.”

The IATA Travel Manager Advisory Group (TMAG) across North America and Europe comprises nearly 30 travel managers from some of the biggest travel programs globally.  As the official reference points in travel management practices for the International Air Transport Association (IATA) their role is to help ensure that a new air retailing landscape is forged with managed travel principles in mind. Framing their insights are the 4 C’s: Cost, Control, Customer and Care.

Have a read: IATA TMAG Propathon paper | Step On The Gas 2019