NDC versus GDS: a buyer briefing for corporate travel

It is written by the team behind GTOS, the Global Travel Operating System from Voraal, and is built on operating experience across 100,000+ trips. You can use the guide whether or not you are a GTOS customer. The shorter comparison page is the frame; this page is the longer briefing. GTOS does not publish certified GDS or NDC connector lists. If a path is required, it is scoped in a demo against what is actually available.

What the terms actually refer to

A global distribution system is a long-standing way of reaching airline and related inventory, often with a mid-office world around it. NDC, or New Distribution Capability, is a way airlines can offer content and offers to sellers through a different technical and commercial path. The practical differences buyers feel can include which offers appear, how ancillaries are sold, and how servicing and changes are worked. Those differences are not stable enough, or universal enough, to print as a false matrix on this site. The landscape changes, and we will not freeze it into invented ticks.

What does not change is the programme test. If a traveller cannot see a policy status, an approver cannot see cost, and finance cannot see the booking on the same record, the content path is not yet a corporate solution, whatever name it carries.

Why most programmes will mix paths

Airlines, markets and agency mid-offices do not move at one speed. Many programmes will use more than one path for a long time. A useful operating system still has to hold each booking as one file: policy, approval, documents, invoices and changes. A "win" on content that cannot be approved or reconciled is not a win in a close.

Agency buyers should read this alongside NDC for agencies and GDS mid-office workflows. Both pages are explicit about the absence of printed badges. Avunzo is designed to connect content to your own channels and is not yet live on production; it is not an NDC or GDS certification. Early access is available on request.

Questions to take into a demo or a supplier meeting

Ask what you need to book today, and which offer types are causing pain. Ask how a change or a refund is worked on that path, and whether the client still sees the file. Ask what is certified, what is scoped, and what will not be claimed. Then apply the programme test above. If the vendor answers with a logo row only, the briefing is not finished.

USD is the main currency on this site. Pricing for GTOS is in USD and available on request. Each company sees only its own data. We do not claim certifications we do not hold.

A GTOS demo should follow this same discipline: your actual mid-office or content requirement, answered factually, with every offer still judged on whether it can live on the trip record.