ARC Reaches A Milestone with EMD
by Michele McDonald /ARC reached a major milestone in the life of its Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD) last month, processing its 100,000th EMD.
It also achieved a one-month record of 6,655 EMD transactions in October, a big leap over the 4,031 transactions processed in October 2013.
The EMD allows travelers who use traditional and online travel agencies to pay for an airline’s ancillary products, such as checked bags or premium seats, at the same time they purchase their tickets.
It has been slow to take off in the U.S.
As recently as June, Mike Premo ARC president and chief executive officer, described the uptake as “just a trickle of activity” since ARC processed its first EMD in July 2012.
A year ago, Premo said only a handful of carriers were using it, and growth was so slow that “I have a 150-year return on my investment.”
He said the higher rate of EMD adoption in Europe was probably driven by Amadeus, the GDS market leader and an early proponent of EMD.
Participants
Today, three GDSs, 346 travel agencies and 27 airlines are participating in ARC’s EMD service. Among the airlines are American Airlines, Lufthansa, LOT Polish Airlines, SAS and AirBerlin.
Jim Davidson, CEO of Farelogix, said large online agencies such as Priceline.com have contributed to EMD growth in the U.S., particularly for transacting sales of premium seats.
His airline customers, which use Farelogix’ technology to facilitate their merchandising efforts, have seen “a steady increase” over the last two years.
Davidson predicted that the number of EMD transactions would soar once the New Distribution Capability (NDC), the technical standard developed by IATA for airline merchandising and product differentiation, is rolled out on a broad basis.
“We are still in the early days,” he said.