The World Travel Agents Associations Alliance (WTAAA) is alerting the global travel agency community to a sophisticated fraud scheme involving the unauthorised use of agency IATA accreditation numbers to obtain airline NDC access and issue fraudulent tickets.

Confirmed incidents have been reported across multiple markets globally, with cases identified in several regions, including in North and South America, and attempted activity noted elsewhere. WTAAA is issuing this advisory to ensure that travel agencies worldwide are aware of the threat and are taking appropriate precautionary steps.

In the incidents reported, fraudsters have used spoofed or look-alike email domains designed to closely resemble those of legitimate travel agencies, to request NDC onboarding or airline agent portal access. By presenting a valid IATA accreditation number alongside a convincing but fraudulent identity, they have in some cases been granted ticketing authority without the knowledge or consent of the agency whose credentials were used.

Once access is established, tickets are issued at volume using stolen credit cards. The legitimate agency typically only becomes aware of the fraud when chargeback notifications arrive, by which point significant financial damage has already occurred. In one confirmed case, with more than USD $350,000 equivalent in fraudulent ticket issuance was recorded.

There is currently no evidence of a breach of any GDS system. The vulnerability appears to relate to onboarding and verification processes that rely primarily on IATA number validation alone.

A call to action for the global agency community

Otto de Vries, Executive Director of WTAAA, commented:

“This is a timely reminder that as our industry embraces new distribution technology, our security practices need to keep pace. The agencies affected in these cases did nothing wrong; their credentials were used without their knowledge. We are urging all agencies to take a few straightforward steps to protect themselves, and we are calling on airline and technology partners to strengthen their verification processes at the point of NDC onboarding.”

WTAAA is asking all travel agencies to take the following precautionary steps immediately:

• Review active NDC registrations. Check all airline portal connections and NDC agreements currently associated with your agency. If anything is unfamiliar, investigate and report it without delay.
• Monitor BSP and ARC activity regularly. Do not wait for the billing cycle. Check for unfamiliar ticket issuance, particularly on carriers or through distribution channels you do not typically use.
• Be alert to domain spoofing. Monitor for email domains that closely resemble your own and alert partners if you identify fraudulent use of your agency name or contact details.
• Report suspicious activity promptly. Notify the relevant airline and GDS security teams, report to IATA, and inform your national travel agency association so that broader awareness can be maintained.

Industry coordination

WTAAA is coordinating with member associations across multiple regions and will continue to share information as the situation develops. We are calling on airline and distribution partners to review their NDC onboarding and verification processes as a matter of urgency; IATA number validation alone is not a sufficient safeguard, and stronger identity verification needs to be part of how access is granted going forward.

“WTAAA exists to give travel agents a unified global voice, and that is exactly what we intend to use here. We will be working with our partners across the industry to ensure that the right safeguards are put in place, not just for the agencies affected today, but for every agency operating in an increasingly digital distribution environment,” de Vries added.

Member associations that have identified similar activity in their markets are encouraged to contact WTAAA directly so that a clearer picture of the global scope of this issue can be established.

Central to the WTAAA’s agenda is addressing the complexities and opportunities presented by New Distribution Capability (NDC) and Modern Airline Retailing (MAR). “We must ensure that the promises of NDC translate into tangible benefits for both travel sellers and consumers. Transparency, fair competition, and consumer protection must be at the forefront of this evolution,” commented Otto De Vries, Executive Director.

The WTAAA will also address the critical issue of combatting travel fraud, providing agents with the resources and information needed to protect themselves and their clients. Addressing professional fee challenges is another key priority.

Strengthening communication within the trade is another key objective, as is geographic expansion, particularly in Africa. Recruiting new allied members from across the travel spectrum, including technology providers, payment solutions companies, and other industry stakeholders, remains a high priority.

The WTAAA’s new Executive Committee is led by Chair Wendy Paradis (ACTA), with Vice Chairs Paula Cortés (FOLATUR) and Dean Long (ATIA). Eric Drésin (ECTAA) serves as Secretary, Hamza Rahmat (MATTA) as Treasurer, and Otto De Vries (ASATA) as Executive Director. Mark Meader (ASTA) chairs the Land & Sea Committee, while Christian Möller heads the Air Matters Committee.

“I am confident that this diverse and experienced team will guide the WTAAA to new heights of influence and effectiveness,” said Ms. Paradis.

The WTAAA extends its sincere gratitude to outgoing Chair, Andrew Bowman, for his exceptional leadership and dedication. Mr. Bowman will remain actively involved in the WTAAA.

This year’s General Assembly also reaffirmed the WTAAA’s sound financial position and commitment to investing in initiatives that support its members. The WTAAA looks forward to a productive year and through our efforts, help to shape a more sustainable and agent-friendly future for the travel industry.

NDC is a travel industry-supported programme launched by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to improve communications between airlines and travel agents. NDC facilitates access to a richer and more complete inventory from the airlines, as well as access to the wider range of services they offer, than was possible through legacy systems.

The latest changes will drive the airline closer to achieving IATA’s goal of 20 per cent of indirect bookings through NDC APIs by the end of 2020. British Airways has already exceeded this target in the UK.

From the end of March, travel agents connected to NDC will benefit from enhancements to complex servicing capability, which will allow them to accept or search between different flight options, without the need to contact a call centre.

British Airways’ NDC platform will now include full servicing prior to ticketing for agents who offer their customers a delay between booking and ticketing. This will give agents the ability to change dates and times for held bookings. This follows the launch of a new 24/7 NDC Service Escalation Process which complements existing support structures already in place.

The airline is also expanding its Long Haul Additional Price Points across more routes and introducing extra price points on Short Haul. The lowest three Short Haul Basic inventories will now only be available through NDC and direct channels for customers starting their journey from the UK.

British Airways’ Head of Distribution, Rogier van Enk said: “These enhancements demonstrate our commitment to delivering more choice and value to customers and trade partners. It’s just the beginning of our 2020 distribution strategy and we will continue to listen and collaborate with our agency partners as we expand our New Distribution Capability offering. If there is ever a time for trade partners to join us on this journey, it’s now.”

The additional price points and Short Haul Basic content will be available through any trade partner connected to British Airways’ New Distribution Capability (NDC) APIs and through the airlines’ direct channels.

“We are very proud to announce this important milestone in our NDC journey”, says Christopher Allison, Head of NDC at Hahn Air. “We are well on track to make our Hahn Air flights, and the content of our partner airlines, available to travel sellers via NDC in 190 markets worldwide. In the coming months, we will connect additional agencies, aggregators and partner airlines to our platform and introduce new features such as more forms of payment, for example, BSP and ARC, support for itinerary changes, and ancillary content such as additional baggage and seat reservations.”

“We congratulate Hahn Air on achieving NDC Level 3 Certification. Hahn Air joins the growing fold of airlines involved in launching a new era of retailing in which travellers have access to all of an airline’s products and services”, said Yanik Hoyles, IATA’s Director, Industry Distribution Programs.

The certification follows the launch of Hahn Air’s NDC platform announced in August 2019. The platform allows airlines of any business model to introduce NDC to their distribution mix and thereby extend their global customer base while providing travel agencies worldwide with access to content via Hahn Air’s NDC APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). It also offers distribution opportunities for airlines that are already NDC-capable.

Hahn Air’s NDC platform is powered by two IATA certified technology partners with vast experience in airline distribution: PROS provides shopping and pricing capability while 2e Systems is responsible for the platform’s overall development and deployment, including offer and order management. 2e Systems CTO, Andrew Hurst, said: “2e Systems is delighted to deepen the relationship with Hahn Air with our IATA certification. As a provider, 2e Systems is committed to continue supporting the evolution of NDC.” Boyan Manev, Principal Product Strategy at PROS also commented: “We are very pleased to see Hahn Air receive its NDC certification, and to see our scalable shopping solutions used to help yet another airline to achieve its distribution goals.”

Travix , a driver customer of Amadeus’ NDC [X] program, co-designed the solution and has had live NDC bookings in production since last year. 

In line with the global launch of the solution, some travel agencies are to become early adopters, giving them first access to the solution and content offered by our airline driver customers via an NDC connectivity. These major industry players include AERTiCKET, American Express Global Business Travel,  BCD Travel,  House of Travel, and integrated tourism group TUI.

The move reflects Amadeus’ ongoing commitment to driving NDC forward through its NDC [X] program and will help airlines and travel agencies deliver more personalized and differentiated travel experiences.

Amadeus Travel API,  an API which integrates with travel agencies’ existing systems and allows them to build their own customized travel booking applications, will be rolled out globally on a gradual basis. The solution will offer greater functionality for Amadeus’ travel agency customers in the following ways:

• Access to new airline content and fares via an NDC connectivity, alongside content from traditional technology such as EDIFACT, and other APIs. NDC is an integral part of the Amadeus Travel Platform – a platform which brings together all travel content from multiple sources in one place, allowing travel agencies to easily search for offers.
• Simplified workflow of shop, order, pay, ensuring a smoother experience which mirrors the consumer journey.
• Cross-sell of ancillary services and up-sell of branded fares.
• Change and cancellation functionalities to include refund, void or exchange options.
• Acceptance of both credit card and cash payments with integrated reconciliation to mid and back office technology, ensuring NDC bookings are fully integrated in the down-stream processes of agencies.
• Optimized to work across multiple interfaces so customers have the flexibility to start a booking on a mobile device and can choose to finish the booking on a desktop, or vice-versa. 

Rudy Daniello, Executive Vice President, Customer Operations, Travel Channels, Amadeus said: “Over the last year, we have worked hard alongside our NDC [X] partners to develop scalable, user friendly solutions that will give agencies access to content sourced through an NDC connectivity. This is now a reality. With the technology now in place, we look forward to seeing what new and exciting content airlines can provide to ensure worldwide adoption of NDC. We are proud to be pioneering in this field, collaborating with leading travel players, and deploying truly innovative solutions for all of our customers.”

John Mangelaars, CEO, Travix said: “Working side-by-side with Amadeus to develop, pilot, and launch its NDC-enabled Web Services solution to deliver on the NDC dream, has been such a rewarding experience. Through the solution, NDC bookings are gaining momentum and we are already reaping the benefits and delivering different, and more personalized offers to our customers. It gives us great pleasure to support Amadeus as it today launches the solution globally to its travel agency customers.”

Amadeus has recently announced additional NDC [X] milestones  and partnerships with in-dustry leaders including Qantas,  Finnair,  Flight Centre  and Travix. This announcement marks the global deployment phase of its NDC-enabled solutions for its travel agency customers. In the coming months, Amadeus will also be launching the NDC-enabled version of its leading cloud-based travel agency solution, Amadeus Selling Platform Connect.

In an important milestone for Amadeus’ NDC-X program, the Flight Centre Travel Group is poised to begin testing the enhanced interface and will start making NDC bookings via the new integrated solution in Selling Platform Connect in the coming months. As one of the largest global travel companies, with more than 40 brands and equity-owned operations in 23 countries Flight Centre’s feedback will be key to driving adoption.

The new design incorporates feedback from Flight Centre and Amadeus’ other NDC-X program partners and creates an intuitive user experience that caters to the diverse retailing needs across different markets.

The user interface is one element of the ongoing development of Amadeus’ NDC-enabled solutions. Amadeus has been working hand-in-hand with its airline and travel seller partners to design and develop an efficient end-to-end workflow to meet the needs of all constituents.

Mick Heitzinger, Product Director Flight Centre Travel Group – EMEA said: “One of the biggest factors influencing the travel industry in 2019 will be distribution as NDC content becomes more of a reality. Our goal has always been to balance the short-term priorities of NDC with building a long-term sustainable booking solution with our technology partners.”

Heitzinger added, “It has been very rewarding to work collaboratively with Amadeus within the NDC-X program to provide input to the NDC-enabled solution.  We have made great progress, particularly since Flight Centre, established a dedicated global distribution team at the beginning of this year to drive the NDC roadmap forward.  Our priority is to ensure that our customers benefit positively from the opportunities that NDC presents and Amadeus’ enhanced interface will ultimately enable our travel consultants to access an even richer choice of fares and NDC content in an already familiar technology environment, personalizing the booking experience for their clients.”

Vicente Bosque Camazón, Commercial Director Business Travel Africa, Travel Channels, Amadeus, said: “The Flight Centre Travel Group in South Africa will be the first agency in Africa to test and drive volumes of our newly launched NDC solution in Sell Connect. We are very happy to start working closely with the Flight Centre Travel Group in this important milestone for the travel industry”

Rudy Daniello, Executive Vice President, Customer Operations, Travel Channels, Amadeus, added: “We are extremely proud to showcase the results of our partnership with Flight Centre and other NDC-X participants, marking an important milestone for our program. As a driver customer, Flight Centre has been a key contributor to the success of our program since its inception and we are excited as we move closer to NDC industrialization. As we prepare for the global deployment of our NDC-enabled solutions and move to further digitalize the travel industry, this thoughtfully designed end-to-end workflow and enhanced user interface will greatly improve the booking and servicing experience for our travel seller customers.”

Amadeus Selling Platform Connect, which Amadeus has deployed globally in 12 languages, will be enriched with NDC content and the upgraded interface will be rolled out in a phased approach that will start in the second quarter of 2019. The upgraded solution will drive incremental value to travel sellers by enabling users to access an extensive range of content and easily compare flights and bundles from multiple sources. Importantly, the more intuitive user interface will make it easier to train and upskill travel sellers around the world.

Also, thanks to the seamless integration of multiple content sources and the enhanced interface, it will offer airlines greater flexibility to merchandise their products and will support better and faster adoption of NDC.

Amadeus’ NDC-X program brings all its NDC activities together under one roof, both as an aggregator and as an IT provider. Amadeus is actively working on integrating NDC content into the Amadeus Travel Platform so travel sellers around the world can access all types of content and serve travelers simply, quickly and accurately.

“We are delighted to be supporting Qantas as it develops its new channel and introduces the NDC standard. As the first GDS operator with an NDC booking solution available to a small group of customers, we have proven our capability to deliver this new standard. We are supporting our customers as they prepare for this new distribution era to ensure it provides seamless, integrated travel choice through access to the broadest range of content. I’d like to thank our customers for collaborating with us as we deliver the new Qantas Channel and NDC solutions which make the process of buying and managing travel better for everyone,” said Scott Barber, Travelport’s managing director, Australia and New Zealand.

Commenting on the airline’s new distribution model, Qantas chief customer officer Vanessa Hudson said the airline was pleased to be working with Travelport to make the Qantas Channel available to their agents globally.

“The digital environment has changed the way we need to work with our trade partners, and our new technology paired with this new Qantas channel agreement will support us on the journey to delivering our vision for our mutual customers. We’re excited to continue to innovate with our trade partners and share in the benefits of this new technology.”

2019 NDC roadmap

Travelport recently outlined its 2019 NDC roadmap after the successful onboarding of the first group of travel agencies to receive access to NDC content following the initial live booking in October 2018. As part of its commitment to ensure NDC works for everyone, Travelport has now implemented its booking solution with a wide variety of travel agencies, including American Express Global Business Travel, DNATA, Gray Dawes Group, Global Travel Management, Meon Valley Travel, Premier Holidays, TAG, Travel Counsellors and Travel and Transport Statesman.

Travelport has also shared insights from the first phase of implementation of its NDC booking solution, as part of its commitment to ensure NDC works for all parts of the travel industry. These learnings highlighted the importance of agent familiarity, workflow integration, a considered roadmap, the demand for NDC content and the need for broad industry collaboration.

Following the successful onboarding of the current agency partners Travelport will continue to refine its NDC booking solutions. Travelport will follow up with further enhancements including an API NDC connection channel through Travelport’s Trip Service API mid-year.

ONE Order is the IATA initiative to modernise its member airlines’ flight booking and accounting processes, to enable them to align their products even more closely to customers’ needs and substantially simplify the customer’s booking experience. Under the ONE Order approach, the customer is issued a single reference number for their journey, known as their Order ID, that covers all their flight and supplementary product documents (which have previously been handled separately). ONE Order thus allows all the travel products and services for a particular trip – even those of other providers such as partner airlines or third parties such as hotels and car rental companies – to be fully integrated under a single booking reference number.

The adoption of ONE Order has been made possible by IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard, which is using the XML standard to modernize the systems communications between airlines and other travel service providers.

Lufthansa’s ONE Order certification from IATA follows the successful completion of a one-year pilot project at the airline in collaboration with Lufthansa Systems. The project’s objective was to conduct the entire product offer and booking process solely on the basis of the NDC and ONE Order standards. As part of the long-standing involvement of the Lufthansa Group in helping to develop new industry standards, the project’s feedback and findings were shared with both IATA and industry partners.

“We are very pleased to have become the first airline in the world to obtain this ONE Order certification,” says Christian Popp, the Lufthansa Group’s Head of Distribution and Revenue Management Strategy & Business Intelligence. “With the new ONE Order standard, we can even better address our customers’ needs, tap new potential and create added value together with our system partners within the travel market. This latest development is also further confirmation of the leading role that the Lufthansa Group continues to play in innovation terms, and marks another major step towards the airline sales of tomorrow.”

“We congratulate the Lufthansa Group on becoming the first airline group to earn our ONE Order certification,” adds Yanik Hoyles, IATA’s Director of Industry Distribution Programs. “With their NDC and ONE Order involvement, the Lufthansa Group is helping to take our industry further along the road to a modern digital retail experience.”

As drivers of innovation in today’s advanced distribution concepts, the Lufthansa Group works continually to develop and refine new technological solutions that can sustainably enhance the processes involved to offer a travel booking experience that is tailored as closely as possible to the individual customer’s needs.

The NDC pilots follow the recent establishment by FCM Travel Solutions of a Global Airline Distribution Team to spearhead industry collaboration between technology and GDS providers, TMCs and airlines in developing solutions to book and service NDC content.

“This new team is already undertaking high-level workshops and meetings with Amadeus and British Airways. As an active member of IATA’s Global Travel Management Executive Council, FCM is also working collaboratively with other major TMCs to ensure NDC benefits all parties,” said Nicole Adonis, GM FCM Travel Solutions.

“One of the biggest factors influencing corporate travel in 2019 will be distribution as NDC content becomes more of a reality. FCM’s goal has always been to balance the short-term priorities of NDC with building a long-term sustainable booking solution with our technology partners, including Amadeus and Sabre, in collaboration with our key airline suppliers.”

Appointed to lead the Global Airline Distribution Team is Jason Toothman Executive General Manager – Global Air Distribution for Flight Centre Travel Group, based in the USA. He joins from Sabre Travel Network where his extensive 15-year career spanned diverse senior sales, account management and airline distribution roles. At Flight Centre/FCM he will work closely with airline suppliers and third-party technology providers across multiple markets to help frame and execute the company’s strategy and direction related to airline connectivity and content procurement globally.

Also on the new team is Nicola Ping who has been appointed as Manager, Air Content & Distribution, Flight Centre Travel Group EMEA, based in London. She joins from British Airways where she has held the role of Manager of Distribution Technology since 2015 working closely with IATA to build the airline’s internal NDC technology offering. She was also responsible for educating corporate and leisure agencies externally on British Airways’ NDC content. In her new role at Flight Centre/FCM she will be responsible for driving technology strategy for air content with the company’s partners and internal development teams.

In addition, the team includes Jason Nooning, General Manager – Global Air Distribution, based in Brisbane, Australia. He has held this role for the past year representing Flight Centre Travel Group at key industry forums including IATA’s Passenger Distribution Management Group Advisory Forum and Business Travel Summit. Additionally, Nooning has been actively engaging with stakeholders around the world to discuss and define partnership strategies which capitalise on the capabilities of NDC.

Adonis concluded: “Together with our parent company we have created the Global Airline Distribution Team to drive this long-term solution forwards, not just for ourselves as a leading global travel management company, but to better help airlines connect with our corporate customers and their travellers. Our team of experts have already played a key part in leading NDC conversations with airlines and our technology partners and we believe we are in a great position to drive adoption of NDC in 2019 and beyond.”

All details can be found on the dedicated anniversary landing page www.hahnair.com/anniversary. The page includes a map of global events, a “Wall of Friends” with hundreds of congratulatory messages from airline partners and travel agents, as well as a special approach to the company history consisting of 20 memories shared by Hahn Air staff members. Finally, travel agents can win attractive prizes, for example, a trip for two to one of the seven birthday parties that will be held in exciting locations across four continents.

“Our ticketing business has certainly come a long way”, says Nico Gormsen, co-founder, co-owner and General Manager of Hahn Air. “In 1999 we saw a business opportunity: many airlines were eager to sell tickets outside of their key markets through travel agencies but could not shoulder the costs of participating in the settlement systems that exist in almost every market, so-called BSPs. Over the years, Hahn Air joined almost all BSPs and established connections with all major GDSs that are used by travel agents to book and issue tickets.

This infrastructure enables other airlines to sell their flights on Hahn Air’s HR-169 ticket.” Quynh Nguyen Ngoc, a travel agent from Hanoi in Vietnam describes the Hahn Air services for travel agents as follows: “Vietnam is one of the smaller markets in the world where not all the airlines join the BSP. It makes us travel agents have many difficulties when booking or issuing tickets of regional and local airlines that are unavailable in Vietnam. But then, the HR-169 ticket came along and has successfully worked! Now we can issue hundreds of airlines worldwide easily and quickly, which also means that our passengers have more and better choices of airlines and routes. For us, it means satisfied customers and more tickets sold.”

Today, Hahn Air has over 350 air, rail and shuttle partners and reaches more than 100,000 travel agencies in 190 markets. With its services, Hahn Air creates business opportunities for all parties involved, as Nico Gormsen explains: “The airline gains more passengers and incremental business in additional markets, the
travel agents can sell tickets of more carriers and the customers benefit from greater choices of airlines and destinations.”

“For the future, our main ambition is to continue to provide leading services and solutions to our transportation and travel agency partners”, continues Gormsen. “We are especially looking, for example, to expand our offer of interline EMDs which enable our partners to sell additional travel-related services and thus increase their revenue.

Moreover, we are working on solutions to support NDC interline scenarios soon. And finally, we are continuously forging partnerships with additional airlines to expand our portfolio of partners.”

For more information about Hahn Air’s anniversary, visit www.hahnair.com/anniversary.