From: Kurland, Susan (OST) 

Sent: Friday, March 07, 2014 5:05 PM

To: 'lavind@iata.org'

Cc: Thomson, Kathryn (OST); Workie, Blane (OST); Kiser, John (OST); Gretch, Paul (OST); Horn, Don 

(OST); Goldner, Bob (OST)

Subject: Re: Request for meeting plus Resolution 787

Doug - I received your message. As required by DOT’s rules of practice, I am placing a copy of it in the 

docket of the proceeding. Susan

From: LAVIN Douglas [mailto:lavind@iata.org] 

Sent: Friday, March 07, 2014 12:24 PM Eastern Standard Time

To: Kurland, Susan (OST) 

Cc: Thomson, Kathryn (OST); Workie, Blane (OST); Kiser, John (OST); Gretch, Paul (OST) 

Subject: Request for meeting plus Resolution 787 

Hi Susan! Hope all is well.

I am writing to express our concern regarding DOT’s delay in issuing its Order to Show Cause on 

Resolution 787. As you know, we submitted Resolution 787 for DOT approval in March 2013. After 

more than 400 comments, we made a second submission that proposed some conditions that we 

thought would address the concerns of those who opposed DOT approval of 787 (the majority of which 

were generated by Open Allies, which represents the three GDSs and part of the travel agent 

community). I understand that DOT was prepared to issue their Order at the end of January 2014. 

Before doing so, IATA and Open Allies filed in late January a document outlining conditions that both 

sides agreed would meet the needs of their respective constituents.

As a DOT alum, I recognize it takes some time to complete the various sign offs before issuing such an 

important Order. At the same time, I do not believe the IATA/Open Allies document fundamentally 

changed our approach on 787 in a way that would require extensive rework of the draft DOT Order. I 

would also think that the fact that the major opponent to Resolution 787 is now supporting DOT’s 

approval would speed up, rather than delay, the internal approval process. 

I wanted to share with your our perspective on the impact of the DOT delay on both the industry and 

the Department:

 DOT’s delay serves to freeze development of NDC. Airlines, GDSs, technology providers are 

hesitant to commit the resources needed to be invested now in order to enable them to 

implement the standard upon DOT approval. The standard proposes a significant change in how 

airlines, aggregators and others distribute tickets that we are confident will serve the interests 

of the end user consumers. If airlines chose to adopt this voluntary standard, they will have to 

change 40 year old internal systems. They will hesitate to start this process if there is a risk that 

DOT will limit their ability to leverage the benefits of the standard

 In part because of the uncertainty of NDC, airlines and GDSs are negotiating one off deals to 

distribute limited types of ancillaries through the GDS network. While we welcome this NDC like 

activity, they are developing their own proprietary solutions to deliver these ancillaries. In 

contrast, NDC is a common “plug” that allows for all airlines to connect to all travel agents who 

adopt the standard. This supports the push by the Department for more transparency in the 
booking and distribution process. The sooner the DOT decision, the sooner we can have live 

pilots of the NDC standard and move toward implementation.

 The “peace agreement” between IATA and Open Allies was hard fought and remains 

contentious among some industry players. The longer the delay from DOT, the better the 

chance that something could derail this positive development.

For all the above reasons, we would greatly appreciate DOT’s prompt publication of their Order to Show 

Cause on Resolution 787.

Thanks and best regards.

Doug

Douglas E. Lavin

Vice President, Member and External Relations

North America

(T) +1 (202) 628-9292

(F) +1 (202) 628-9448

(M) +1 (202) 374 4281

lavind@iata.org

International Air Transport Association

1201 F St., NW

Suite 650

Washington, DC 20004

www.iata.org

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