In 2024, ARC celebrated a significant milestone — 40 years since the company’s founding on Sept. 17, 1984. Officially launching operations on Jan. 1, 1985, ARC began its mission of providing airlines with transparency to their agency partners through accreditation, facilitating ticket transaction reporting and settlement for agencies, and ensuring the timely transfer of funds between the two parties at the core of the travel ecosystem.
In 2025, we look forward to recognizing 40 years of ARC. Here are some highlights of how the industry evolved in 2024, and the moves ARC made to become a data platform that is the intelligence behind air travel. We look forward to continuing to power commercial decisions for airlines and our partners in the decades to come.
Unpacking the Numbers Behind Air Travel
The air travel outlook for the rest of 2024 is promising, with ARC on track to close the year with $98 billion in total air travel sales — a 3% increase over 2023. Additionally, ARC has welcomed 11 new airlines so far in 2024, increasing the number of participating airlines to more than 240. This increase enhances the value of ARC’s data, making it a more comprehensive resource for the industry.
Guiding the Air Travel Industry Forward
ARC works to inspire collaboration, solve problems and generate efficiencies across the global air travel community. In 2024, ARC brought back our annual conference with Elevate + TravelConnect 2024. The joint conference, hosted by ARC and ATPCO, brought together industry leaders primed to explore the travel ecosystem. The keynote sessions and panels are available to revisit through our on-demand sessions. Throughout the year, ARC also actively engaged with several smaller key advisory groups, including ARC Product Advisory Council, the ARC NDC Advancement Working Group, the Direct Data Solutions (DDS) Advisory Group (in partnership with IATA), and groups continue to help shape the future of travel data, reporting and settlement, with further discussions planned for 2025.
Improving Modern Retailing
In October, NDC transactions accounted for 18.4% of all air ticket transactions processed through ARC. By December, that figure is expected to rise to 19.0%, reflecting steady growth in NDC adoption. Throughout 2024, this progress has been supported by ARC’s NDC Advancement Working Group, which was formed in 2023 to reduce adoption challenges and help the industry navigate NDC’s evolving complexities. The group, comprising travel agencies, GDSs, aggregators, online booking tools and technology providers, met four times in person this year. Together, they worked to identify best practices for successful NDC integration, which will be published in December alongside ARC’s Progress Pledge, a commitment to advancing NDC across the industry.
“ARC leveraged our unique position in the industry to bring together stakeholders from all corners of the travel ecosystem to work through common challenges involved in NDC adoption,” said Paige Blunt, senior manager of Direct Connect and ONE Order. The collaboration developed solutions that will propel NDC advancement in 2025 and beyond.”
Looking ahead, ARC is also preparing for the next chapter: Orders. Toward the end of 2023, ARC began earnest conversations with airlines to understand their Orders strategy. This year, ARC launched an Orders Working Group, bringing key airline stakeholders together to collaboratively define requirements for an ARC-built settlement solution for Orders and align on necessary updates to our data products to accommodate differing airline retailing strategies in the U.S. and U.S. territories points of sale.
ARC is currently planning for a first release of reporting and settling Orders for cash, working with our partners to set the foundation for a more seamless, efficient travel transaction ecosystem in 2025 and beyond.
Revamping the Future of Transaction Settlement
In 2024, enhanced ARC Direct Connect, our solution to unlock the benefits of NDC, by increasing payment data visibility, reducing data gaps and displaying rejected NDC transactions so transaction reconciliation is easier.
ARC also completed development work to expedite settled transaction data to airlines by up to two days starting Jan. 13, 2025. This will give airlines and agencies quicker access to sales data to better serve their clients.
In 2025, ARC will also introduce the capability for agencies and airlines to use multiple forms of payment within a single transaction, bringing a new level of flexibility and convenience to the settlement process. This modernization will enable travel partners to blend payment types — such as credit, debit and other emerging payment methods — allowing for smoother transactions and more tailored options to meet customer preferences. By diversifying payment choices, ARC aims to simplify financial workflows, enhance transaction security and create a more adaptable framework to support the evolving needs of the travel industry.
“We’re energized by the opportunities we see in 2025 and beyond,” said Lauri Reishus, ARC’s president and CEO. “With deep appreciation to our partners and collaborators who share our commitment to driving the industry forward, we’re ready to make the upcoming year our most innovative and impactful yet.”