GDS in Transition – New Models in Global Distribution
Summary
This panel session at ITB Berlin 2026, moderated by Dr. Felix Dannegger, brought together representatives from all three major GDS platforms — Stefan Scholter (Amadeus), Garry Wiseman (Sabre), Jason Toothman (Travelport) — plus Charles Tandonnet from Travelsoft, to discuss the structural transformation of global distribution. Dannegger opened with a historical framing: GDS companies historically generated healthy double-digit profit margins every year, while airlines in a good year might achieve single-digit margins — a disparity that fueled resentment and drove airlines to negotiate 'full content agreements' offering lower fees in exchange for broader GDS distribution, ultimately increasing airline dependence rather than reducing it. Over 20+ years, commercial innovations followed: opt-in programs, private channels, dual-pipe models, and eventually NDC — each attempt by airlines to reclaim pricing flexibility and distribution control.
The panel addressed how NDC has matured from a contested concept into mainstream adoption, though uptake varies sharply. Travelsoft's Tandonnet disclosed that approximately 35% of his company's air bookings are now NDC — well above GDS averages — because Travelsoft serves leisure-focused clients where NDC content holds the best fares. Amadeus's Scholter confirmed NDC adoption at up to 50% for specific airline partners, and close to 90% of Amadeus travel sellers now use NDC in some capacity. Sabre's Wiseman acknowledged NDC is still in 'single digits' for Sabre, attributing the lag partly to unresolved serviceability issues: many airlines still require agents to visit the airline hub for exchanges and refunds, making EDIFACT preferable for corporate travel managers. Travelport declined to share a specific figure but emphasized NDC is 'accelerating at a rapid pace' and is a major investment priority. Panelists were unanimous that they have no commercial preference between EDIFACT and NDC, though Tandonnet noted practically that 'the best prices are in NDC content' which drives leisure-focused clients toward it.
On Modern Airline Retailing (IATA's offer/order framework), the GDS companies that also supply PSS systems — Amadeus and Sabre — outlined their modernization strategies. Sabre announced its new 'Sabre Mosaic' platform this same morning, built from scratch on Google Cloud Platform using Gemini as its AI backbone, designed to be modular and backwards-compatible with SabreSonic. Wiseman cited Riyadh Air and Virgin Australia as airlines pursuing full offer/order implementations. Amadeus described its Nevio platform (for full-service) and Stratus (for low-cost/value carriers) as purpose-built from scratch, with airlines able to mix and match modules from different providers. Travelport, which exited the PSS business years ago, positioned this as a strategic advantage: freedom to focus exclusively on the buy side, with production-ready AI tools like Content Curation Layer and Content Optimizer already deployed at agencies — 'not prototypes, actually in production today,' said Toothman.
The session closed on agentic AI, with panelists debating whether the multi-year trajectory of modern retailing transitions can be reconciled with the month-scale disruption pace of AI agents. Sabre launched its agentic APIs in September and has a launch with 'Minerip' at end of the current month integrating agentic APIs with PayPal for end-to-end conversational travel commerce. Saber also deployed chatbots with Virgin Australia, reporting positive results in both discovery and booking. Wiseman flagged the unresolved question of how platforms like OpenAI or Gemini (which lacks plugins) will route consumer queries to the right travel apps. On industry identity, all three GDS panelists moved away from the 'GDS' label: Sabre calls itself an 'AI-native' company, Amadeus frames itself as a tech enabler with AI embedded in architecture from the ground up, and Travelport describes itself as a 'modern retailing platform.' The session ended with a brief mention of Constellation Software's recent stake in Sabre, which Wiseman confirmed is a board-level matter he is not involved with, and a light-hearted exchange about whether Travelsoft would also make an attractive acquisition target.
Key Takeaways
- •Travelsoft disclosed that approximately 35% of its air bookings are now NDC — significantly above reported GDS averages — driven by its leisure-focused client base that prioritizes best available fares, which increasingly reside in NDC content rather than EDIFACT.
- •Amadeus confirmed NDC usage of up to 50% at specific airline partners, and stated that close to 90% of all Amadeus travel sellers now use NDC in some capacity, marking the end of the 'ramp up phase.'
- •Sabre acknowledged NDC is still in 'single digits' for its platform. The primary bottleneck is serviceability: many airlines still route exchanges and refunds through the airline hub rather than the GDS, causing corporate agents to default to EDIFACT.
- •Sabre announced Sabre Mosaic at the conference, built entirely from scratch on Google Cloud Platform using Gemini as its AI backbone — described as 'loads of AI' — with Riyadh Air and Virgin Australia named as airlines pursuing full offer/order implementations.
- •Travelport's Jason Toothman reframed NDC as standing for 'new distribution complexity' and positioned Travelport as the complexity-solver — deploying Content Curation Layer and Content Optimizer, which are AI and machine learning tools 'actually in production today, not prototypes,' used by agencies.
- •Sabre launched agentic travel APIs in September and has a live launch with startup Minerip at the end of the current month, integrating Sabre's agentic APIs with PayPal for end-to-end conversational travel commerce — the most concrete agentic deployment cited by any panelist.
- •Garry Wiseman flagged a major unresolved question in agentic AI: Gemini currently lacks travel plugins, and for OpenAI integrations consumers would need to specify app names (e.g., 'Hey Virgin Australia, what flights...') rather than natural queries — meaning the routing infrastructure for truly seamless agentic booking does not yet exist.
- •Charles Tandonnet argued that what IATA calls Modern Airline Retailing is essentially what tour operators and OTAs like those connected to Atcom/Atorcom have been doing for years — packaging flights, hotels, and services dynamically — suggesting the concept is less novel than the airline IT industry presents it.
Transcript
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the GDS in transition session. Um we thought before even last week that this was going to be a very topical session indeed and uh with what's happened over the weekend and today it couldn't be more topical. So um glad to see you all here. Um to get us um going and sort of in the mood of things I had prepared a couple of slides. There we go. Um so we I wanted to talk about um how the GDS as a business model and as a commercial model has evolved over time and...
