Both companies have worked together on the development of a shopping engine that brings cost savings and an improvement to the customer shopping experience.
Juan Villanova Oliva, Senior Airline Account Manager at Trip.com, Jane Sun, CEO of Trip.com Group, and, Miguel Henales, Head of Digital Business & Direct Sales at Iberia
Trip.com Group have strengthened their partnership with Iberia by implementing a shopping engine solution for the New Distribution Capability (NDC) air ticket sales channel, a first for the partnership and a positive step for the development of NDC. The innovative approach to enhancing NDC sales channels showcases the global travel group’s commitment to partnering with airlines in search of mutually beneficial cooperation in the NDC space.
The newly developed NDC partnership, facilitates priority access to a richer and a more complete inventory from the airline as well as enhances the transparency of the shopping experience on Trip.com. It offers travellers, better content on Iberia flights with additional fare options on Long Haul and Short Haul Additional Price Points (LHAPP and SHAPP).
It also provides, change and cancellation rules during the shopping stage which ensures the passenger obtains more detailed information and varied product choice, whilst supporting the work of Trip.com and the airline post-ticketing Customer Support teams.
Juan Villanova, Senior Airline Account Manager for Spain at Trip.com, commented, “I am proud to have coordinated this new feature between our technical team in Shanghai and the outstanding Iberia NDC team. Both entities are shaping the future of distribution and improving the travel experience of our passengers. I am sure that we will continue to achieve many more accomplishments together.”
Henk Van der Velde, Regional Director Southern Europe of Flight Business Unit at Trip.com, said, “We are delighted to be collaborating with Iberia on the NDC program, implementing new solutions like the shopping engine which is bringing excellent results. I am looking forward to working with them going into 2022 as our roadmap brings new features and improvements within the NDC channel. Iberia and IAG are investing into NDC solutions and we are excited to be partners on this journey.”
Miguel Henales, Digital Business & Direct Sales Director at Iberia, said: “We are glad to join forces with Trip.com signifying yet another milestone in our journey to enhancing and improving our distribution offering for customers. The partnership and this new solution are testament to our commitment to driving mass NDC adoption and proves that the IB solution works, and is powerful and scalable.”
Steven Sintini, Iberia’s Distribution Futures Manager: “Our connection with Trip.com has been built on NDC from the ground up and it has been a success from the very first day with a growing number of segments month after month. With the new Trip.com shopping engine solution, we are taking another step, and we are pleased to see a reduction in our “Look to book” ratios as well as a tremendous increase in the bookings since its implementation.”
Since the shopping engine was implemented in December 2021, sales with Iberia have increased exponentially compared to the same period last year, generating hundreds of thousands more flight segments.