In 2019, China Southern Airlines became the first airline in China to obtain the highest NDC certification level, LEVEL-4. As the very first airline in China to put NDC into production, China Southern Airlines has incorporated NDC into full-process service functions covering query, reservation, payment, ticketing, cancellation, rescheduling, and seat selection, and will further improve functions related to products and ancillary services.

About NDC

NDC（New Distribution Capability）：
(New Distribution Capability) is a travel industry-supported program (NDC Program) launched by International Air Transport Association (IATA) for the development and market adoption of a new, XML-based data transmission standard (NDC Standard). The NDC Standard enhances the capability of communications between airlines and travel agents, and allows airlines to provide partners with rich product information, personalized products, and holistic functions, thereby creating value for passengers.

Development of NDC at CSAir

2013.04
In April 2013, CSAir became one of the first airlines in the world to participate in the NDC Program, and contributed brilliant opinions, ideas and practical project experience to the implementation of the NDC Standard, winning the recognition from IATA headquarters.

2015
In 2015, CSAir completed the second pilot project and received a letter of commendation from IATA. The Association recognized CSAir’s efforts and significant contribution, and acclaimed CSAir as the very first airline in the world to independently design and implement NDC.

2016.05
In May 2016, CSAir was among the first to achieve the NDC Level-3 certification – the highest certification level at the time.

2017
In 2017, CSAir upgraded NDC to version 17.2 (the version for large-scale commercial application) and implemented NDC in the sales agency system of CSAir. CSAir is the only airline in China that puts NDC into actual production, as well as the first airline in the country to receive the certification of multiple NDC versions.

2017.09
In September 2017, CSAir began piloting the overseas NDC Direct Connect sales model, enabling functions such as ticket sales, cancellation, changes, and flight delay notifications.

2017.12
In December 2017, CSAir became a member of the IATA NDC Leaderboard.

2018.04
In April 2018, CSAir issued the first NDC overseas ticket, which verified the feasibility of Direct Connect overseas.

2018.09
In September 2018, CSAir realized sales of NDC tickets with domestic partners for the first time, hitting a monthly ticket sales of over 10 million.

2018.12
In December 2018, CSAir’s NDC system obtained the authoritative certification by the National Copyright Administration of China, making it the first airline in the country to independently develop NDC and obtain certification.

2019.03
In March 2019, CSAir successfully obtained the NDC Level 4 (Full Offer & Order Management) certification granted by IATA, making it the fifth airline in the world and the first airline in China to reach this level of certification.

Functions Supported by CSAir's NDC API

As an NDC Level-3 certified airline, China Southern Airlines has built the NDC API covering its distribution cycle, i.e. query, booking, payment, ticketing, cancellation, rescheduling, seat selection and other services. In the future, it is going to support value-added services such as class upgrade, meals, lounges, paid-for seats, pre-paid baggage, and in-flight Wi-Fi.

Query Interface

Through the information on departing and arriving locations, flight date, the number of passengers, query the products of China Southern Airlines.

The information returned includes:

1. Flight information:

(1) Departing and arriving locations

(2) Flight date

(3) Class information

2. Price information

(1) Freight rate (including cancellation and rescheduling rules)

(2) Accruable mileage

(3) Taxes

Reservation Interface:

Based on the product information obtained through the Inquiry Interface and the information filled in by passengers, constitute order information and make reservation; if successful, return order and reservation information.

Payment Interface

Support third-party payment, gateway payment or credit card payment; complete payment and confirm previous reservation request, and generate orders through Reservation Interface prior to request.

Order Query Interface

Allow ticketing units to view issued orders, and return order information, including:

Order number, ticket number

Price information

Passenger information

Route information

Cancellation & Rescheduling

Allow for handling voluntary/involuntary flight rescheduling for passengers, including the interface for generating change orders, the interface for querying change order details, interface for notifying change order status and payment.

Seat Selection

Allow passengers to purchase paid seats on international flights, including interfaces for extracting seat maps, generating seat selection orders, canceling seat selection orders, payment and order query

Advantages of NDC Partnership

NDC enables our partners to obtain abundant product display information from China Southern Airlines in real time, acquire personalized products, and provide passengers with whole-process services.

Abundant product information display

The traditional distribution model is mainly based on product price information, but lacks differentiated product content display, resulting in pure price comparison and insufficient awareness of service value among consumers; NDC allows partners to obtain product content, product prices, differentiated services for different products (such as mileage accrual) from China Southern Airlines in real time, while supporting diverse display methods including text, images, and videos to enhance passengers’ value perception and purchase experience.

Acquire personalized products

Through NDC, CSAir directly outputs its diversified products and services to partners, such as key account rates, B2C freight rates, "air + x" products, dynamic fares and other ticket products, as well as value-added services including class upgrade, meals, lounges, paid-for seats, pre-paid baggage, and in-flight Wi-Fi, among others; and meanwhile offers personalized fares and products according to the types of partners and passengers, further enriching product categories and jointly creating value for passengers.

Provide whole-process services for passengers

Relying on NDC, CSAir provides partners with whole-process products and services covering ticket query, order placement, payment, ticketing, as well as ticket cancellation, changes, and sales of value-added service at the aftersales section, so that partners could deliver one-stop services to passengers.

At the current stage, the NDC partnership launched by China Southern Airlines is based on the IATA NDC 17.2 version. In the future, while following IATA's NDC planning, CSAir will work with partners to create richer content, more differentiated and diversified products, and a smoother user experience in NDC, aiming to bring more value to our common customers.

For those interested in reaching NDC partnership with China Southern Airlines,please contact our business specialists directly :

Ju Lingbing 020-86122920 julingbing@csair.com

Zhou Qiangbin 020-86114134 zhouqiangbin@csair.com

After confirming the cooperation intention, you will sign a cooperation agreement with China Southern Airlines, start technical docking to finally launch the program.