TORONTO — WestJet may not be first to market with its NDC offering. But seeing what worked – and what didn’t – for other airlines’ NDC rollouts might just work in its favour.

As Todd Lindey, Director of Sales, put it, “knowledge is power.” Seeing how other airlines handled their NDC debuts gave WestJet an edge, he said.

Todd Lindey, Director of Sales, WestJet

“We know a lot of competitors are already fully NDC-integrated. We’ve taken a really partner-centred approach. We’re building it with our travel trade partners, not for them,” said Lindey.

Travelweek connected with WestJet ahead of its NDC launch, currently on track for mid-2026.

Part of WestJet’s partner-centred approach means meeting travel advisor partners where they are. “We want to make it as easy as possible for agents to work with us on this,” said Lindey.

WestJet’s NDC will be available to agents via three channels: Direct Connect with Accelya; the GDSs (Sabre, Travelport and Amadeus); and an aggregator option.

“What makes our approach unique, we will be going to market in all three verticals from day one,” Lindey told Travelweek. “We’re not trying to prematurely go to market with this.”

NDC INCENTIVE & DCR SURCHARGE

WestJet has been keeping travel advisor partners in the loop with frequent NDC updates ahead of this yearʻs launch.

In February, agents heard about a new feature in Accelya’s 11.5 release: automated involuntary exchange. Agents will be able to Reshop for alternative options in the event of a clientʻs schedule change. The enhancement is designed to help agents manage disruptions more efficiently, streamline servicing and deliver a smoother experience for clients, says the airline.

More key points from WestJet when it comes to NDC include …

• Pricing in NDC channels will be aligned with what’s offered on WestJet.com. Agents will get access to WestJet’s best available pricing and exclusive discounts with NDC.
• Industry-competitive incentives for agents connecting via Direct NDC APIs and SPRK
• WestJet’s lowest-priced fare bundle will be exclusively available via NDC channels
• Modernized pricing will be available across ancillary services including checked bags and pre-reserved seat selection.

Jorge Rozo, WestJet’s SVP, Revenue & Distribution and Deputy CCO

With NDC, there’s always the carrot, and the stick. For agencies, the carrot comes in the form of incentives that favour NDC bookings. The stick is the distribution cost recovery (DCR) surcharge that many airlines now levy on traditional bookings.

“We have committed to pay incentives to agencies that Direct Connect with us. They’re going to be competitive incentives,” Jorge Rozo, WestJet’s SVP, Revenue & Distribution and Deputy CCO, told Travelweek.

As for the stick, WestJet will levy a surcharge on traditional booking methods, in an effort to encourage NDC use. “We try to find the right balance. There will be a cost, a surcharge, that will apply to non-NDC bookings, for our lowest class per cabin, and it will be US$20 – $22,” said Rozo.

“WE WANT TO MAKE SURE BOOKINGS ARE SERVICEABLE”

It’s been around for more than a decade, but NDC – the IATA-led, airline industry data transmission standard officially known as New Distribution Capability – still has many naysayers in the retail travel community.

First introduced in 2012 and gaining widespread adoption by the worldʻs biggest airlines from 2015 onwards, NDC is positioned by IATA and global carriers as the best way to modernize airline retailing.

Moving away from the EDIFACT ʻgreen screen’, one-size-fits-all approach to selling air travel – especially as airfares splintered into countless categories, and as ancillaries evolved into a massive revenue stream for airlines – NDC allows carriers to customize their fare offerings and integrate ancillary sales, and offer them up for agents to book, in a standard format across all airlines.

Over the past decade, NDC pushback from travel advisors has focused on fragmented booking content, and difficulties with making changes post-booking, to name two big sore spots.

Plus, changing your back-office functionality and the way you book air and service your clients doesn’t happen easily – or overnight.

Since airlines pay segment fees to GDSs, it was in their best interest to develop a workaround system. With an ʻadapt or die’ mentality, GDSs got onboard with NDC content too. That’s good news for agencies, who didn’t want to give up their GDS contracts. It should be all systems go – except for many agencies who say NDC still just doesn’t work for how they do business.

Lindey knows all about it. “When you bring up the NDC conversation with retail travel partners, the eyes start to twitch,” he said. “At the end of the day, NDC is not new tech. It’s been around for several years. We’ve built out an an infrastructure to support our partners. It’s not a move away from the GDS. In fact the GDS partners have done an incredible job of building NDC capability into their systems. The traditional EDIFACT standard is very rigid in terms of what fares we can put into the market. NDC is a better way to provide air content to our partners. It’s about modernizing the product.”

Talking about the pain point of travel advisors trying to make changes to a clientʻs reservation post-booking, Lindey said thatʻs been on the radar for WestJet since the start. “We want to make sure bookings are serviceable, and that agents can easily offer clients post-booking support,” he said. “A guest wants to change something, to add something, that happens all the time. Absolutely, from day one that functionality has been a priority.”

“THIS IS NOT A RACE AND WEʻRE NOT RUSHING THIS”

Rozo told Travelweek that WestJet’s message to travel advisors about NDC now “is exactly what we told them three years ago: we’re building this technology with them. We’re not imposing this on them. There won’t be any surprises. For us, NDC is a synonym of value, not just cost. This is not a race and we’re not rushing this.”

Between October and December 2025, more than 1,000 test cases were completed as part of WestJet’s product release testing. Plus, at launch, WestJet says its NDC will offer servicing capabilities comparable to EDIFACT, including the automated exchanges and refunds (CAT 31/33) and True Reshop. A list of all the capabilities can be found here.

Rozo is adamant that WestJet’s NDC wonʻt launch until all three access options are ready for agents to use.

“We’re not forcing anyone to do Direct Connect,” he told Travelweek. “We won’t launch until we have all three options available. We’re waiting for all the GDS connections – Sabre, Travelport and Amadeus – to be ready. For agents, if they want to work with their GDS, they should be able to do that. When you donʻt give partners that choice, they end up just refusing. I didn’t want to put ourselves between our GDS partners and the travel trade.”

Rozo summed it up: “ʻIt’s the channel of your choice.’ That’s one of our guiding principles.”

Lead image caption: Flying over the Rocky Mountains with WestJet’s MAX 8 aircraft