After more than a year and a half of contentious filings and on-and-off negotiations, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and a group representing travel agencies, corporate travelers, airline passenger advocates and GDSs have reached an agreement on a set of “conditions” they will recommend to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) that could ultimately lead to new set of standards for booking airlines, or what IATA calls a New Distribution Capability (NDC).

NDC, in turn, could create a whole new way of booking airlines, which might lead to new costs for airline ticket distributors and changes in the way consumers buy airline seats overall. But for now, IATA and the Open Allies for Airfare Transparency—the group representing ASTA, major travel agencies, consumers, the Business Travel Coalition and the three GDSs, Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport—have jointly filed with the DOT new conditions that will revise IATA’s so-called Resolution 787.

That resolution, which IATA originally filed with the DOT in March 2013, sought approval of a new XML programming language that would be used to create a set of air booking standards. IATA initially had filed the resolution without consulting major travel agencies, consumer groups or the GDSs, but now it will be revised after what both IATA and Open Allies call a productive dialogue that they have engaged in for the last two months.

Open Allies said the new conditions included in the revised Resolution 787 now address any possible industry confusion over its scope by making clear that any DOT action on the resolution would not constitute approval or endorsement of any specific method or business model of distributing air transportation.

Other agreed conditions ensure that the adoption of any technical standards ultimately developed as a consequence of Resolution 787 would be entirely voluntary, would not require the disclosure of personal data, would not exclude the use of other standards, and would have no impact on ownership of passenger data.

The final condition agreed on by IATA and Open Allies addresses concerns about the new standards developed as a result of Resolution 787 being compatible with existing standards. Open Allies has agreed to withdraw its opposition to any DOT action concerning the resolution as long as the DOT approves the resolution with the conditions intact. At the same time Open Allies said it still does not endorse IATA’s New Distribution Capability.

“We are delighted that we were able to reach agreement on conditions to limit the scope of Resolution 787 and ensure that it addresses only data transmission standard-setting, not a new distribution business model,” said Andrew Weinstein, executive director of Open Allies, in a statement to the press.

“We believe these conditions will serve all travelers by safeguarding transparency, competition, and consumer choice, while protecting privacy and ensuring that any new standards developed under Resolution 787 are open standards available to all industry participants,” Weinstein added. “We look forward to continuing our dialogue with IATA and other industry stakeholders to develop a collaborative approach to address standard-setting in future.”

IATA, in turn, also praised the agreement on the new conditions. “We are pleased that we were able to work together with our industry partners to strengthen the principles underlying Resolution 787,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO. “These include anonymous shopping, data privacy and a voluntary open data standard available to all current and future travel technology suppliers. We urge DOT to approve Resolution 787 in a timely manner so that consumers may benefit from the greater choice and transparency in air travel shopping that the NDC standard will enable.” An IATA spokesman said the group would have no more comment beyond that statement.

IATA and Open Allies also have agreed to work together and with other stakeholders to establish an industry forum that will support a collaborative approach new standards for airline distribution. The two groups will share additional information about the structure and participants in that forum over the coming days and weeks. According to Open Allies, the conditions jointly filed with the DOT by IATA and Open Allies included:

First, that approval of Resolution 787 does not constitute approval of any agreement among IATA member airlines regarding any method or business model of distributing air transportation. It also doesn’t restrict the use of any channels available for the distribution of air transportation, including indirect distribution by other than airlines.

Second, approval of the resolution does not constitute approval of any agreement among IATA member airlines to require the disclosure by any passenger personal information of any kind. This was a major goal of Open Allies, which claimed IATA’s new airline booking standards would not protect the privacy of passenger information.

Third, approval of the resolution does not constitute approval of any agreement among IATA member airlines to require the use of any particular data transmission standard or standards.

Fourth, approval of the resolution does not in any way address the issue of data ownership and specifically does not include approval a certain parts of Resolution 787 or of any other reference to ownership in the resolution.

Fifth, any communications or message standards or protocols developed under Resolution 787 shall be open standards, meaning that they can be used by all distributors of air transportation and intermediaries in the distribution of air transportation, including CRSs and other aggregators, in a non-discriminatory basis.   

Sixth, approval of the resolution does not constitute approval of any agreement to prohibit individual IATA member airlines or groups of such airlines from continuing to use any communication or message protocol, including existing standards.

Finally, nothing in the approval of Resolution 787 shall be deemed to be an approval of either a restriction on backwards compatibility or a restriction on development of a communications or messaging standard that is not backward compatible. In addition, nothing in the resolution shall be construed to inhibit the ability of distributors of air transportation to use other standards, including existing standards, in combination with any standard developed under Resolution 787.  

For the full text of the revised Resolution 787 filing, click on IATA-Open Allies DOT filing.

For its part, the Business Travel Coalition (BTC), a member of Open Allies, said it is now clear that DOT is being asked by IATA to approve only an agreement on a process for the setting of technical communications standards. BTC said those standards, if ultimately developed, would now be open standards available to all on a non-discriminatory basis, and that the decision of any industry players on whether to adopt them would be wholly voluntary.

With these agreed limitations, BTC said, it is now clear that DOT is not being asked by IATA to approve any agreement among airlines that would require the disclosure by any passenger of personal information. “While this breakthrough agreement has the potential to usher in an era of industry-wide collaboration on technical standards, BTC will carefully monitor the implementation of Resolution 787, if approved, for adherence to the agreement," said BTC Chairman Kevin Mitchell.

Open Allies member Amadeus also said it welcomes the agreement reached between Open Allies and IATA on the new conditions related to Resolution 787.

“We are pleased that, with this agreement, IATA has responded to certain industry concerns,” Amadeus said, “and that such conditions make it clear that a DOT approval of Resolution 787 does not constitute an approval of a specific method or business model for distributing air content, or of any restriction on the use of any distribution channel; an approval of any agreement among IATA member airlines to require the disclosure by any passenger of personal information of any kind; an approval of any agreement among IATA member airlines to require the use of any particular data transmission standard(s); an approval of any reference to ownership of data in Resolution 787.”

In addition, Amadeus noted that the agreed conditions clarify that any standards developed under Resolution 787 shall be open standards, that Resolution 787 will not restrict what could be done with the existing standards and that any restriction on backward compatibility will be removed.

“We are encouraged that IATA has engaged with the broader travel industry to address various concerns raised, and in doing so the industry is moving towards a solution that will benefit all,” Amadeus said. “We look forward to engaging in the next steps with IATA in order to establish a new industry forum that will govern the setting of standards in the distribution value chain.”

Now, of course, it’s up to the DOT to approve Resolution 787—though there is no indication just when it might do so. Following that, the DOT may also have to approve any move to a New Distribution Capability as agreed upon by IATA and Open Allies members. That many still mean the way consumers book airlines could be dramatically changed in the not too distant future.

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