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Virgin Australia partners with Sabre to power its future retailing capabilities

Virgin Australia and Sabre Corporation will work together on the airline’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) retailing capabilities after agreeing a new partnership.

The regional carrier will adopt Sabre’s NDC IT capabilities, together with its Global Distribution System (GDS), to create and distribute offers and customised NDC content.

Modern data standard NDC, devised by industry body IATA, has been more than a decade in development and it now starting to be rolled out across the aviation sector.

Sabre said Virgin Australia will be deploying the technology to “power its future retailing efforts across both direct and indirect channels”.

The carrier will be able to make real-time offers accessible to customers so they can shop, book, and service its NDC air and ancillary offers at speed and scale.

Virgin Australia aims to use its Sabre partnership to operate more efficiently and to increase revenues by tailoring offers to customers across its global marketplace.

Dave Emerson, chief commercial officer of Virgin Australia, said: “It was vital to us that we chose the right, future-focused technology partner to enable us to create tailored, customised offers in real time, and position those offers in the right distribution channels at the right time, to the right travellers.

“Investing in our distribution and retailing capability is crucial to enable a modern airline retailing strategy that’s fit for purpose for today, tomorrow and for the longer term. We’re pleased to be partnering with Sabre as our NDC IT technology provider, so we can take a clear step forward in our retailing and distribution evolution.”

Virgin Australia recently announced it had chosen two new solutions from Sabre’s Retail Intelligence suite, together with renewing its multi-year Sabre distribution agreement that includes the future addition of NDC content.

The airline is now turning its attention to its future retailing and distribution strategy by selecting Sabre’s NDC IT capabilities.

“We’re thrilled to continue to enhance our relationship with Virgin Australia,” said Kathy Morgan, vice president, product management, distribution experiences at Sabre Travel Solutions.

“NDC is a key priority for Sabre and the global travel industry because it lays the groundwork for future airline retailing based on Offers and Orders.

“What is important for Virgin Australia is Sabre will be supporting both the IT and distribution sides of the NDC equation for the airline, giving them a holistic set of solutions and a clear NDC roadmap for the future.”

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