United Airlines and Travelport Announce Long-Term Strategic Relationship to Accelerate Modern Airline Retailing

New model of collaboration delivers Travelport access to United’s best retailing capabilities, co-development of innovative features, and accelerated deployment of next-level New Distribution Capability (NDC) functionality for travel agencies and corporate buyers.

United Airlines 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 counselors 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 of United Airlines. “Together, we’re setting a new standard for transparency, flexibility, and value in air travel distribution.”

“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 of 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.”

Early Access, Co-Development and Online Booking Tool Extras

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 prioritizes 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 enroll 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 counselors. 

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 specialized support teams to assist travel agencies during the transition, including enhanced NDC capabilities to ensure smoother adoption of new technologies and maximize the value agencies may receive from the relationship.

This multi-year deal reflects both organizations’ commitment to modernizing airline retailing while supporting the vital role that travel agencies and travel management companies play in the industry.