Building on an existing agreement to distribute international content, Air India has extended its partnership with Amadeus to include local domestic content for travel sellers at points of sale in India through the Amadeus Travel Platform.
The deal will also see Air India's NDC content integrated into the Amadeus Travel Platform, with the content being made available to travel sellers in 2024. This will offer the travel industry community more choice, flexibility, and retailing options.
With NDC technology, Air India will be able to further enhance the shopping experience for travellers by providing richer content and supporting better upsell of its branded and ancillary products.
Nipun Aggarwal, Chief Commercial and Transformation Officer, Air India, says: "India is one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world, with a rapidly developing economy creating opportunities to travel for more people than ever before."
"At Air India, we are navigating a holistic transformation programme that is aimed at elevating the Air India experience for our guests with new aircraft, new products and services, an expanding global route network, and new technology."
"Across platforms, Air India will be able to showcase its products worldwide, access new markets, and grow its customer base. Our relationship with Amadeus is a key part of this process, and we are delighted to be expanding the scope of our partnership today," says Aggarwal.
Javier Laforgue, Executive Vice President, Travel Unit and Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Amadeus comments: "This is an exciting time for Air India, and we are delighted to be part of it. Following the signing of this strengthened partnership, we will be able to distribute a complete offering from the carrier to the largest community of travel sellers in the world."
"This is a significant milestone in our distribution strategy and retailing journey with the airline. India is an essential market for Amadeus, and we look forward to continuing our close collaboration with the nation's flag carrier," says Laforgue.
Following its acquisition by Tata Group, Air India has launched Vihaan.AI, a historic transformation programme to overhaul its operations, products, and services, with a five-year roadmap to increase its market share substantially.
The carrier has placed record orders for 470 new narrowbody and widebody aircraft and is committed to completely refurbishing its existing fleet of widebody aircraft. In contrast, a new global brand identity was recently unveiled.
The enhanced partnership follows an earlier agreement, signed in 2022, where Air India adopted the full Amadeus Altéa Passenger Service System Suite (PSS) to power its customer interfaces.
Founded by JRD Tata, Air India pioneered India's aviation sector. Since its first flight on October 15, 1932, Air India has built an extensive domestic network with non-stop flights to cities worldwide, across the USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Far East, South-East Asia, Australia, and the Gulf. After 69 years as a government-owned enterprise, Air India and Air India Express were welcomed back into the Tata group in January 2022.
Air India is navigating through a significant five-year transformation roadmap under the aegis of Vihaan.AI, with an ambition to become a world-class airline with an Indian heart. The first phase of this transformation, the taxi phase, was recently concluded and focused on fixing the basics. These included bringing back to service many long-grounded aircraft, the addition of talent across flying and ground functions, rapid upgradation of technology and strengthening of customer care initiatives, amongst others.