New Revenue Management and Distribution Technologies in the Airline Industry: Legal, Regulatory, and Commercial Implications

Abstract

IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) is a communication standard for the distribution of airline tickets. This new standard will take advantage of modern technology and give airlines the ability to transmit new information to intermediaries and passengers during the flight search and booking process. NDC will also allow for more advanced revenue management and pricing techniques like dynamic offer generation and has inspired researchers to develop and test these new techniques.

This thesis investigates the potential changes in the industry from the impending implementation of NDC. It considers potential legal, regulatory, and commercial barriers to NDC implementation and the implications of NDC adoption. The contributions of this thesis are three-fold. First, the history and development of airline revenue management and distribution are comprehensively documented. This documentation provides the context from which to understand how NDC may change the airline industry and is among the most thorough available in current literature. Second, NDC implementations are analyzed through a policy and legal lens. While this analysis is not comprehensive given the extent and variety of potential NDC implementations, the thesis offers one of the first attempts to understand the legal and regulatory issues that NDC implementation will raise. Finally, policies are explored that consider the current legal and regulatory landscape, the potential benefits of NDC to the industry, and the possible impacts on consumers from NDC implementation.