ARC recently gathered industry stakeholders for the first in-person meeting of our NDC Advancement Working Group in 2025, continuing our goal of fostering collaboration across the travel ecosystem to modernize airline distribution.

As this group continues its work in 2025, we remain committed to addressing the ongoing opportunities to encourage NDC adoption across the industry landscape. The conversation during this in-person meeting focused on topics like different branded fare names, timing to identify payment types and surcharges, the support of sold-out flights, the need to personalize offers, and the ability to recognize loyalty.

While not the first time we’ve met this year, the meeting built on momentum from the release of the NDC Best Practices Guide and the year-over-year growth of NDC transactions within ARC’s settlement platform. We solidified the exciting milestones we have for the group through the remainder of the year.

We plan to release version 1.1 of the NDC Best Practices Guide in the coming months, with an additional release expected toward the end of 2025. These updated guides will reflect the evolving conversations among the group's stakeholders, ensuring our recommendations address timely and relevant topics. The updates will also incorporate feedback from the other working groups ARC is convening, such as our Buyers Council.

We’re excited to explore the feasibility of the group’s recommended best practices from technical and go-to-market standpoints, with a second NDC Advancement Working Group benchmarking survey this fall, in anticipation of seeing positive movement from January to October.

I’m looking forward to the continued great work from this group. Our efforts have led to tangible benefits for every stakeholder in the ecosystem. For more information on ARC's NDC initiatives and to access the latest best practices, visit ARC’s NDC Best Practices webpage.