United Airlines – a Corporate Partner of the FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub – and Travelport have entered into a strategic relationship that represents a new model of collaboration between an airline and a multi-source content provider. This marks a significant evolution from the traditional airline-distributor relationship, with teams from both companies working closely together to enable new capabilities and functionality for agency and corporate buying communities.
Through this deal, Travelport will gain early access to United’s NDC technology roadmap and co-development opportunities, helping to ensure travel counsellors benefit from the most sophisticated merchandising tools in the marketplace.
“Our new model for cooperation with Travelport helps ensure that United’s travel agencies and corporate buyers benefit from the most innovative retail travel solutions available,” said Andrew Nocella, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, United Airlines. “Together, we’re setting a new standard for transparency, flexibility, and value in air travel distribution.”
Travelport will receive early access to United’s innovative NDC-enabled extras with teams working together to co-develop new features and bring them to market rapidly.
- Technical cooperation: United and Travelport will work together on a deeper level of technical collaboration than traditional airline-distributor relationships, with dedicated development resources focused on creating new capabilities specifically for Travelport+, a modern retailing platform built for travel agencies that provides an all-in-one solution with faster search, better content, and built-in automation.
- Accelerated innovation: through Travelport+, the relationship has an ability to accelerate the deployment of new features and functionality to travel agencies and corporate buyers.
- Priority development: United prioritises development efforts with third parties who can move the fastest and bring innovations to market successfully, with Travelport serving as a key strategic partner.
- Online Booking Tool extras: United will bring its portfolio of Online Booking Tool (OBT) extras to Travelport’s Deem OBT platform. Over time, this inclusion will introduce several new customer-friendly capabilities, including the ability to pool unused United travel credits, directly enrol in the United MileagePlus loyalty program, use United Jetstream amenity funds as a form of payment for ancillary purchases, and more. OBT extras will also be available in Travelport+ to bring the functionality to travel counsellors.
“This long-term relationship with United Airlines marks a major milestone in accelerating airline retailing for agencies and corporations,” said Greg Webb, Chief Executive Officer, Travelport. “By combining United’s advanced NDC capabilities with Travelport’s next-generation platform, we’re delivering richer content, better service solutions, and more choice for all our customers worldwide.”
The collaboration will be implemented in phases, with initial capabilities launching in early 2026 and additional features rolling out throughout the year. United will deploy specialised support teams to assist travel agencies during the transition, including enhanced NDC capabilities to ensure smoother adoption of new technologies and maximise the value agencies may receive from the relationship.
