British carrier scraps its own NDC architecture and switches to Amadeus
Following over a decade of independent development and management of its own distribution system, British Airways has made a strategic decision to abandon its in-house NDC platform. The company is fully migrating its distribution processes to a proven technological solution. Amadeus Altéa NDC. This fully integrates into the ecosystem of this tech giant.
Abandoning home crafts in search of standardisation
The British carrier was among the pioneers who, a decade ago, invested heavily in building their own distribution architecture (based on the older IATA scheme 17.2). The aim at the time was to ensure direct control over channels and reduce reliance on intermediaries. However, the long-term maintenance and constant updating of a complex, unique system eventually became too great a financial and operational burden. This was particularly evident at times when the entire industry was rapidly standardising.
The decision to retire its own code and move to the Altéa platform is actually a logical extension of a wider £7 billion technological transformation. Within it British Airways It already uses Amadeus technology to manage the offer and order standard (Nevio). It also uses the Passenger Service System (PSS).
What does the transition to the new standard 21.3 bring?
The migration to the new Amadeus platform, which is based on the more advanced IATA standard 21.3, will take place gradually over several years. The first migration processes for partners are expected to begin as early as the last quarter of this year. From the perspective of agency business and TMCs, this step resolves one of NDC's biggest pain points to date – the complicated and fragmented management of bookings after the ticket purchase itself.
The combination of a global standard and direct integration with the passenger system will significantly speed up the onboarding of new partners to the network. For travel professionals, this means standardised workflows and less manual work in practice. It also finally enables smoother and automated handling of name changes, re-purchases, ticket exchanges, and real-time order updates.
With this move, British Airways clearly shows that the phase of experimenting with isolated, in-house solutions is behind them. It also shows that the future of distribution belongs to consolidated, global platforms that can offer partners stability and uniformity.
