You can't please all the people all the time. That's been true of airline commercial strategies related to the New Distribution Capability.
Then there's Qantas, able to please most of the people most of the time with its own distribution reinvention this year.
Qantas' strategy, unveiled in February, plays on first listen like a greatest hits album of modern classics of airline distribution. There's a European melody of surcharging global distribution system bookings, a la Air France-KLM, British Airways and Lufthansa. There's the American Airlines-like rhythm of incentives for agents who cut a new deal and migrate to NDC connections. There's a Lufthansa-esque riff on GDS content removal threats for agencies that don't reach a new deal. And there's that familiar private-channel tune, another European sound, that delivers sustained GDS access and content assurances for agencies who rely on the channel.
Influences are easy to spot, but Qantas' sound is unique. Its distribution approach has struck more harmonious chords than others have, especially the European airlines. Qantas has won buy-in and struck new deals with most of the agencies it works with, large and small. The two largest Australia-based travel agencies, Flight Centre Travel Group and Corporate Travel Management, quickly backed the carrier's approach, while multinational corporate travel players ATPI, American Express Global Business Travel, BCD Travel, CWT and Expedia's Egencia all reached new deals. Some TMCs, including Amex GBT, praised Qantas' GDS inclusiveness. When it announced its new strategy, it already had reached commercial frameworks with each of the major GDSs.
"We're not looking to disintermediate players in the ecosystem," Kwiatkowski told The Beat this summer, speaking of NDC adoption. "That's not in our interest at all. We see a path to adoption and scale with the GDSs and with our travel agency partners. But we do see the need and the opportunity around how we get this content smorgasbord to be bigger than it is today and get that to market."
With its commercial structures in place, Qantas is looking to scale API connections to distributors. "It will take time, and we're working through that and making sure we're bringing people along for the journey, rather than creating angst and disruption," he said.