BWISkyGuy: All three GDSs are working on NDC, but they've been "working on it" for like four or five years. The airlines for even longer. While I understand some groups (airlines) are running out of patience, the NDC is the New Distribution Capability and not a New Distribution
Standard. The GDSs will be able to do ...
something ... with NDC, but maybe that capability really only works with some airlines and not others. Same for TMCs.
There's a good video on youtube that focuses on the recent Southwest meltdown as a symptom for the archaic IT infrastructure of this industry. The last bit is specifically about NDC. I think he sums the situation up quite nicely - airlines want ndc, but can't agree on what it should look like. So, airlines try to go it alone, but realize it's cost prohibitive, and give up. Wash, rinse, repeat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-m_Jjse-cs
Even if you aren't interested in NDC, it's still an interesting video.
I was speaking more to the point about loss of any current functionality or booking ability... This will definitely continue to require work in the future for the GDSs to keep up with all offerings that develop, but if two of the three GDSs are currently pulling data through NDC APIs, and the third goes live next month, then most (or maybe all) corporate booking engines would at least have the functionality they currently have. They're pulling that content will no longer offered via the Edifact protocol through the NDC APIs, for the current functionality. The GDSs are the backbone for the legacy travel tools that corporate agencies use -- or at least all the ones I'm aware of or have used.