You might have seen the post from The Beat on July 14th entitled “Airlines To Agencies: Less Looking, More Booking On NDC“. It explains that some airlines have introduced look-to-book caps, with penalties as TMCs ramp up NDC searches.
For years, many airlines pushed hard for NDC adoption. They removed content from traditional channels, imposed surcharges, and nudged agencies and customers toward direct bookings. The stated goal? More modern distribution. But the underlying strategy often appeared broader: lower distribution costs, weaken the GDS model, and take tighter control of content.
Now, the conversation is shifting. With NDC adoption growing, though still relatively modest, some airlines are expressing concern about look-to-book ratios and the computing costs of rising search volumes. The response? Penalties, throttling, and threats of revoked access. The message is clear: “Don’t look unless you’re going to book.”
“Modern retailing” meets old infrastructure
This would be easier to accept if the infrastructure were there to support it. But in many cases, airlines have underinvested in the very technology they’re asking the market to rely on. They’re now struggling to support the level of inquiries that traditional systems handle every day without breaking a sweat.
Let’s be honest: building a modern, real-time retailing platform isn’t easy. The GDSs, however imperfect, can still process billions of search requests, return results in milliseconds, and support massive scale globally. That’s not a defense of the status quo, but a reality check on the complexity of what airlines are trying to replicate.
Want to be Amazon? Build like Amazon
Consider Amazon. It handles astronomical volumes of searches and transactions every second, without charging shoppers for browsing or penalizing resellers for surfacing its inventory. Why? Because it understands the long game: better search leads to better sales.
If airlines want to play the modern retailing game, they need to build the infrastructure, and tolerance, that comes with it. Penalizing partners for engaging with your content doesn’t create a better experience. It just reinforces the perception that NDC is less about innovation and more about control.
So yes, it’s fair to critique the old models. But it’s much harder to replace them. Before airlines start dictating terms to those trying to sell their product, they might want to revisit the old saying: be careful what you wish for.
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