IATA forecasts that 4.7 billion people will take to the air in 2014. The pandemic is over. The airlines are expected to generate $23.3 billion in profit. When you translate this, it works out to roughly $5.00 / passenger, not enough to buy you a Big Mac at McDonald's. No wonder airlines are trying to increase margins.

One way to increase profits is to adopt more modern technology as fast as practical. One surefire place to start is in replacing the 40-year-old tech stack used to supply business travelers with airfares & related content. Replacing EDIFACT with NDC is being pushed hard by American Airlines. Managed travel programs have to adapt, the die is cast. Now what?

Instead of looking at the problems NDC is causing in the short term, our super panel will look into the future and assess where they think this will all land. At stake is a very substantial portion of the $1.4 trillion business is expected to spend on business travel & meetings in 2024.

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Corporate travel managers are dealing with a multitude of important issues today, including escalating air and hotel expenses globally due to supply constraints and inflation.

However, the biggest disruption certainly has to be the advent of NDC airfares before the industry is apparently ready to move from EDIFACT. TMCs and GDS not ready across the Our great panel in our last webinar on March 27 on the future of NDC airfares was very encouraged by what NDC can bring to the table in terms of benefits.? Multiple direct connections to airlines? Global coverage? More problems than answers.Transition issues aside, the advent of NDC airfares is welcomed for a variety of reasons.

Our great panel in our webinar on March 27 on the future of NDC airfares was very encouraged by what NDC can bring to the table in terms of benefits for managed travel. One panelist judged the 40-year-old EDIFACT architecture to be 10-15 years past its sell-by date, NDC being a major move forward whose time had come.

In the meantime, how do travel programs of all sizes cope with the move to NDC?

This webinar will outline concrete suggestions and tips on how to manage this critical transition.

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The pressure to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions has never been greater. The current regulatory environment globally expects everyone to move to NetZero by 2050. The travel industry, in particular, is extremely vulnerable to seeing the cost of travel escalate due to new fees and an increasing regulatory burden.

What’s the problem with travel in reducing CO2 emissions, especially in air travel?Jet fuel is a wonder product with a super attractive weight-to-power ratio. It can deliver 14x more power than current battery technology for the same weight. And the longer you fly, the more fuel you burn. CO2 emissions from air travel account for 70% to 90% of emissions for an average business trip.

The increased cost of travel will come from governments mandating the use of SAF which is currently 2-4x more expensive than jet fuel at most airports. Fees are being added to heavily taxed airfares, with Singapore recently adding fees for sustainable aviation fuels. In the European Union, airlines are expected to pay up to $3 billion in allowances under the EU-ETS system for flights within the EU as they lose their free ETS allowances over the next 24 months.

We address what national governments are doing in terms of domestic aviation, the impact of ICAO’s CORSIA program on international flights, and how the industry is reacting to these events.

Managed travel and meetings programs survived the pandemic but now face unprecedented sky-high prices for air travel and hotel stays. Now, travel and meetings program managers must also unravel the impact of the “Infrastructure Wars” - NDC vs. Edifact—on their programs and the impact of new dynamic pricing and meetings program managers must also unravel the impact of the “Infrastructure Wars” - NDC vs. Edifact—on their programs and vs. negotiated rates.

Infrastructure wars—EDIFACT is a 40-year-old technology stack that managed travel and meetings have used for two generations to book travel. It is at least 15 years past its sell-by date. NDC technology offers greater flexibility and more finely tuned offers for travel programs, even for specific employee travelers. However, most programs cannot widely access NDC fairs because the “pipes” are not ready. So how to compare prices, we will address this for one-hour or 24-hour turns.

Dynamic pricing means prices now change hourly, daily, and weekly as the world turns with vendors trying to sell out their flights and hotel properties. How can travel managers track and control the evolution of negotiated rates vs. dynamic prices? We will address this and new metrics, the goal of which is to try and level the playing field so travel *& meetings programs get maximum value for their investment in their programs.

The webinar will take place in our booth at GBTA 2024 in Atlanta, and we will have a number of travel managers and other guests who have made the journey to Atlanta for this annual event. If you cannot make the show, you will enjoy what we expect to be a very lively webinar, given the topics at hand. We will also show our new Cerebri AIQ v2 platform and how we address these critical topics with data and numbers that help us better understand the impact of NDC and cost reductions across travel and meetings programs.

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Are NDC airfares finally becoming a factor in the overall managed travel mix as far as travel managers are concerned? Is EDIFACT really heading to the trash heap of history, or has the strategic retreat of vendors in 2024 slowed down managed travel’s march to NDC yet one more time? Can TMCs keep up with the demand for new retailing methods being driven by the leading air, hotel, and ground transportation vendors? We address all of these issues and we look forward to having you participate. To watch any of our previous educational webinars, you can view our webinar archive here. Our distinguished panel for this webinar includes:- Jean Belanger, CEO, Cerebri AI (Moderator)- Leslie Andrews, Global Category Leader - Travel, JLL- Maureen Brady, COO, Partnership Travel Consulting ( PTC )- Dave Weaver, Manager of Global Travel, Bechtel