By Victoria “NIKE” De Dios
Ensuring that more opportunities are given to their travel agent partners, Emirates will offer exclusive rich content and services for travel agent partners on its New Distribution Capability (NDC)-enabled direct connect platform starting from July 01, 2021, wherein a surcharge on all bookings made via Global Distribution Systems (GDS) will also kick in on the same day.
Following the launch of Emirates Gateway in October last year and marks a milestone in Emirates’ plans to cater to a dynamic marketplace by providing trade partners with a choice of connection options and differentiated products and benefits across channels.
“Our goal is to empower our trade partners to deliver even better customer experiences, and we are pleased to introduce the next batch of new exclusive features and benefits for them on Emirates Gateway, which was launched to address the limitations of current legacy systems and provide a wide range of additional content and options for agents,” said Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer.
“We are heartened by the support and positive feedback that we’ve received from our trade and GDS partners to date. Emirates firmly believes in healthy, long-term relationships with all players in the travel eco-system, and we will continue to work hard to nurture the relationships that we’ve built through the years by providing great value and service.”
Agencies not signed up to the Emirates Gateway can continue to access Emirates’ EDIFACT – legacy content through the airline’s GDS partners Amadeus, Travelport, Travelsky, Infini and Sirena. However, to mitigate the higher cost Emirates incurs through GDS distribution, from July 01, 2021, bookings made via GDS will incur a distribution surcharge ranging between USD 14 and 25 per ticket depending on sector length.
Emirates is working closely with interested trade partners to bring them onboard the Emirates Gateway, which provides access to the widest range of Emirates fare products including exclusive content not available in the indirect channels, and where bookings will not incur a Distribution Surcharge.
From July 01, 2021, the following NDC content will be available to agents, via Emirates Gateway:
- Access to differentiated ticket pricing such as dedicated promotional fares and pre-sales
- Ability to sell excess baggage, enabling enhanced customer experience
- Access to rich content
- Differentiated pricing for select ancillary services
- Faster access to new ancillary products
Emirates Gateway content can be accessed through three flexible access solutions:
- Emirates Booking Portal: a user-friendly web booking portal available in 16 languages, connected directly to Emirates’ reservation systems that simplifies the booking, ticketing and post-ticketing servicing of Emirates orders
- Emirates Gateway Direct: which provides access to Emirates content through IATA standard NDC APIs, allowing our trade partners to build applications that meet their needs
- Emirates Gateway Sync: a facilitated link to Emirates products and services provided by industry-leading, IATA registered, Emirates certified technology partners
Travel agents interested in Emirates Gateway can get more information from the Emirates Partners Portal (emirates.partners) or contact the Emirates sales team.