CWT expands access to Finnair NDC content in Finland and the Nordics

CWT has made rapid progress in deploying NDC capabilities in Finland since May last year, ensuring its customers continue to have uninterrupted access to Finnair content through their preferred booking channels. 

When Finnair removed its last remaining domestic itineraries from EDIFACT distribution in February this year, more than 90% of CWT’s customers in Finland were already booking this content via NDC-enabled connections using the Amadeus Cytric online booking tool (OBT), as well as through travel counselor-assisted channels such as phone, email, and messaging. CWT will further expand its NDC coverage in the Nordics to include additional routes, airlines, and points-of-sale over the next three months.

“What we’ve achieved in Finland exemplifies how NDC can be deployed quickly, at scale, and without disruption to customers,” said Erik Magnuson, CWT’s Vice President of Product Management, Travel Content & Connectivity. “This was the result of meticulous planning and swift technology development by our teams, as well as our close collaboration with Amadeus and Finnair. We are now using this as a blueprint to expand our NDC capabilities with other airlines around the world.”

“Our successful deployment of NDC with CWT in Finland marks a significant milestone on our path of distribution transformation,” Jenni Suomela, Vice President Global Sales and Channel Management, Finnair, said. “The strong collaboration with our partners at CWT and Amadeus made it possible to complete this roll-out swiftly, ensuring seamless access to our services. We’re excited to make further progress on this distribution transformation to enable us to provide more personalized and dynamic content and to meet our joint customers’ needs and expectations. The recently launched new product PrioFlex, only available through modern channels, is a great example of this.”

“We are very happy to see the positive results of our close collaboration with CWT and Finnair,” said Ludo Verheggen, NDC[X] Program Director, Amadeus. “Together, we have ensured that CWT’s customers can have easy access to all of Finnair’s content, either through our Cytric Easy self-booking tool or through CWT’s travel counselors using Amadeus’ NDC-enabled Selling Platform Connect solution. We are working hard together with our partners, customers, and the industry to unlock the full potential that NDC can deliver to all stakeholders, from airlines to travel sellers and all the way to the corporate traveler, thus enabling NDC adoption at scale.”

CWT made big strides in expanding its NDC content coverage in 2023. The Finnair implementation is the latest milestone on CWT’s roadmap to provide clients with NDC content, which now includes the Cytric, Concur, Serko, and GetThere OBTs, with content being sourced via Amadeus, Sabre and Travelfusion. It intends to build on that momentum through 2024, with NDC deployments for more airlines and markets in the pipeline.