British Airways and HitchHiker announce NDC partnership
HitchHiker and British Airways have partnered to enable authorized agents and corporate customers using the HitchHiker Flight API to access British Airways content directly through IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard.
As a leading software house and independent content aggregator for the travel industry, HitchHiker is excited to announce the cooperation with British Airways, the largest international carrier in the United Kingdom.
“It is our company mission to efficiently interconnect travel agents, travel management companies and tour operators worldwide with service providers of the tourism industry. Therefore, it is a great honor for us to support British Airways in distributing its services based on the NDC standard”, says Thomas Boffo, Managing Director of HitchHiker GmbH.
Authorized agents and corporate customers will now be able to use the HitchHiker Flight API to shop and book British Airways’ published and corporate airfares via NDC, while avoiding the distribution technology charge of 8 GBP per fare component which will be applicable to all bookings not made through NDC or other lower-cost distribution channels as of 1st November 2017.
British Airways flights may be paid by credit and debit card or cash via IATAs Billing and Settlement Plan. Furthermore, HitchHiker’s System already supports Prime Sale Seating as well as cancellations and refunds of British Airways flights. To add even more value for the passenger, leisure fares and a greater variety of ancillaries (post-sale seating, paid baggage, paid meals and catering choice) as well as itinerary changes are going to be released by HitchHiker by the end of this year.
In order to comply with most agents’ wishes of transparency, the HitchHiker Flight API allows a mixed display of content from various fare sources, such as British Airways Direct Connect, Farelogix, HitchHikers LCC Engine or traditional GDS’s such as Amadeus, Travelport and Sabre.
About HitchHiker GmbH
HitchHiker GmbH is a leading and independent provider of software solutions for the global travel industry, based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. With 25 years of experience in the tourism industry and numerous international projects, HitchHiker has developed solutions for the entire airfare management and ticketing process as well as powerful online booking solutions for all types of flights and ancillaries. HitchHiker’s customers in 27 countries comprise some of the leading online and traditional travel agencies, tour operators, consolidators, travel management companies and airlines worldwide. For the development of its solutions HitchHiker trusts in industry standards such as Microsoft technology. HitchHiker has once again attained Microsoft Gold Application Development competency and is compliant to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.
About British Airways
British Airways is the UK’s largest international airline and one of the world’s leading global premium carriers. Its principal place of business is London, the world’s largest premium travel market, with significant presence at Heathrow, Gatwick and London City Airports. It is expanding its schedule from Stansted, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol Airports.
British Airways’ main home at Heathrow is Terminal 5, regularly voted by passengers as the world’s best airport terminal in international surveys.
Operating one of the most extensive international scheduled airline route networks, together with its joint business agreement, codeshare and franchise partners, flies to more than 70 different countries. British Airways carries more than 40 million customers a year and has a fleet of nearly 300 aircraft. This summer, it will be operating nearly 1,000 flights a day across four London airports.
Press contact:
Uta Will
Marketing Manager
HitchHiker GmbH
Berner Str. 81
60437 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
T: + 49 (69) 50 70 30
E: marketing@hitchhiker.net
H: www.hitchhiker.net
