Airlines signing NDC agreements with global distribution systems wait an average of two years before going live, according to T2RL research presented at the T2RL Engage 2026 conference in London in September 2026.

That figure anchors a harder question the industry has finally begun asking: how does an airline move from fragmented legacy systems to an integrated model of Offer, Order, Settle and Deliver (OOSD) without breaking commercial performance or operational reliability?

The NDC revolution was pitched as a transformation of distribution — carriers would regain control of their products and deliver a personalised retail experience. It hasn't worked out that way, at least not on the original timeline.

What did the conference actually conclude?

Progress is uneven, implementation is slow, and the transition to modern airline retailing is proving far more complicated than the vision implied. T2RL's analysis of the supplier market shows a concentrated landscape — few vendors hold the levers — which shapes both cost and pace for airlines dependent on them.

Rather than wholesale replacement of the passenger service system, the answer emerging from the conference is incremental. T2RL calls it "escaped functionality": airlines and third parties building capabilities outside the traditional PSS, one component at a time.

That approach carries consequences. Each escaped function adds integration work, contractual complexity and supplier-management burden that a monolithic PSS used to absorb silently.

Why does Riyadh Air matter to the story?

Riyadh Air illustrates both the ambition and the difficulty of building a full OOSD architecture from scratch. A startup carrier free of legacy constraints can, in theory, design the modular retailing stack incumbents can only retrofit. In practice, the conference discussion made clear the difficulties are structural, not merely technical.

The wider lesson T2RL drew: modern retailing is not a technology installation. It is a multi-year commercial and operational transformation requiring:

• modular design
• supplier collaboration
• contractual control
• a clear focus on measurable value

What separates the promise from the delivery?

Plenty. What is promised is an integrated OOSD model with personalised offers and airline-controlled distribution. What is flying today is a patchwork: NDC channels live at some carriers, escaped functionality bolted onto PSS backbones elsewhere, and an average two-year gap between contract and go-live even when projects succeed.

For network planners and finance departments, that gap translates directly into deferred revenue capability and sustained distribution cost through legacy channels. For suppliers, the concentrated market T2RL identifies means incumbents retain pricing power even as airlines try to route around them.

The September 2026 discussions suggest the industry has stopped waiting for a single retailing platform to arrive and started assembling one piece at a time — with Riyadh Air and its OOSD build serving as the test case the rest of the sector will judge against.