Every first order announced so far was an addition

Every "first" in the move to offers and orders so far has been an addition. By Amadeus's account, Finnair created a native order in May 2025 ⁵, Saudia moved to orders in July 2025 ⁶, and in August 2026 Finnair implemented Nevio NDC ⁷. None of these announcements names an old record that was switched off, and two describe the old one running alongside: Saudia's orders are converted from existing records ⁶, and Finnair's existing NDC connectivity is "maintained" ⁷. None of that is a failure. It is, however, a different thing from what the industry said it was building.

The thesis of this column: the offer-order transition is so far, by the parties' own accounts, keeping its dates for adding new records, while this publication found no airline that has announced a dated retirement of a PNR, ticket or EMD flow, so the measure of progress worth watching is not the next "first order" but the first such retirement.

What was said, and when

IATA's description of the end state has been consistent. In May 2023 its Airlines magazine said travellers "will no longer need to juggle" PNRs, e-tickets and EMDs, and would instead hold "a simple order" ¹. In December 2024 IATA's Director, Distribution, Yanik Hoyles, said 100% Offers and Orders "should start to be commonplace by the end of the decade", and the same article set out the sequence: leading airlines processing orders through new systems "from late 2025 or early 2026", a market beginning to mature from 2028, and "core solutions" in 2026 "with adoption at scale happening from 2030" ².

The vendor and its customers adopted the same horizon. When Amadeus announced British Airways as a partner for its Nevio portfolio on 16 April 2024, it framed the deal as support for IATA's ambition "to create a wholly Offer and Order based retailing environment by 2030" ³. When Air France-KLM joined on 18 February 2025, Amadeus's release described the aim as adoption of IATA's ONE Order standard and quoted Air France-KLM's information systems chief on "the phase out of several legacy applications", run through a programme called MOON (Moving to Offer and Order Native), which it called a "multi-year effort" ⁴. Neither release dated any retirement.

What is live, by the parties' own account

Amadeus says Finnair's chief executive created the first native order on Finnair.com on 5 May 2025, for a Helsinki to London Heathrow flight, and described the step as part of "the transition from the PNRs and e-tickets issued today" ⁵. The release gave no rollout schedule; it said further advances were expected "in the coming years" ⁵.

On 16 July 2025 Amadeus said Saudia had moved to orders, and described how: a "smart bridging" capability converts records from Saudia's existing Altéa passenger service system into order records in Nevio, while operations continue on the existing infrastructure ⁶. Read plainly, the order is generated from the PNR, not instead of it. It is the sensible architecture for a carrier that cannot stop selling while it migrates.

On 13 August 2026 Amadeus said Finnair had become "the first airline worldwide to implement Nevio NDC", starting on Finnair's own agency pilot platform, FAST, with "existing NDC connectivity maintained to ensure business continuity" ⁷. Amadeus's Ghaleb Rostom described "ticketless, Order-based settlement" as something Nevio will support later, not something it supports now ⁷. That is the clearest public statement of where things stand in autumn 2026: by the vendor's own account, settlement without a ticket is still to come.

IATA's agenda for its Macao symposium, announced on 23 September 2026, points the same way: its finance track includes "adapting financial processes for the move from tickets to orders" ⁸. The move is still described as ahead.

The pattern, stated fairly

Slipped timelines are normal in airline IT. IATA forecast leading airlines processing orders on new systems from late 2025 or early 2026 ²; by Amadeus's account, Finnair and Saudia did so in 2025 ⁵⁶. On that account, the forecast was met, and it should be said.

What has not appeared is the other half. IATA's own December 2025 research, based on surveys of 20 IT providers and the consortium airlines, says the fastest 25% of IT providers are already launching with an airline, with "the first legacy retirements" scheduled "from 2027", and that most providers plan to support the start of legacy retirement, including gradual PSS decommissioning, from 2027 onwards ⁹. The same piece counts seven full-scope airline contracts and 48 pilots and proofs of concept as of October 2025, and says "the complete transition to 100% Offers and Orders will take time" ⁹. Those are survey findings of plans, not outcomes.

There is one carrier on record putting a date on a retirement and then moving it, and it is Nevio's launch customer ⁵. Finnair announced in 2021 an ambition to end legacy EDIFACT distribution by the end of 2025; on 29 May 2024 it said it did not see that as "feasible" across all its markets, because the industry's pace "has been slower than we originally expected" ¹⁰. That is a removal date, set by the programme's launch customer, slipping on the grounds that the rest of the ecosystem had not moved. EDIFACT distribution is not the same thing as the PNR or the ticket, but the mechanism is the one that matters here: a single airline can add a new record on its own, while removing an old one depends on every travel agent, partner airline and settlement system it trades with.

That mechanism is the publication's reading, not a statement by Amadeus, IATA or any airline. Its confidence tier is probable: Finnair's own explanation ¹⁰, Amadeus's bridging and continuity language ⁶⁷ and IATA's "will take time" ⁹ all point to it, and no source found contradicts it.

Why it generalises

If the reading holds, it applies to any vendor and carrier, not only Nevio. An order system can go live inside one airline's own channels, as Finnair's did on its website ⁵. The PNR and the ticket, by contrast, are shared vocabulary: an interline partner, an agency back office and a settlement process all read them. Whether the 2027 retirement start that IT providers told IATA they plan ⁹ arrives depends less on any one vendor's build than on how many counterparties can read an order.

What to watch

Three things are checkable from public statements over the next twelve months.

Macao, 28 to 29 October 2026. If speakers in the tickets-to-orders finance session ⁸ name a carrier that settles any flow without a ticket, the gap this column describes has started to close. If the language stays in the future tense, it has not.

A retirement with a date. The firmest test of the 2027 retirement start that IT providers told IATA they plan ⁹ is whether, by the end of 2027, any airline among Finnair, Saudia, Air France-KLM or British Airways publicly names a PNR, ticket or EMD flow it has switched off. This publication found no public announcement of a British Airways order go-live as of this writing; that is absence of evidence, not evidence of absence, and is recorded here as unresolved.

The language of the next release. Watch whether announcements keep the words "bridging" and "business continuity". Their disappearance would be the earliest public sign that an old record has been removed, not accompanied.

If by the end of 2027 one of these carriers has announced a retired legacy flow on the schedule IT providers gave IATA, this column's pattern was a timing artefact and should be read as such.

The comparison between these statements is this publication's reading, not a claim by Amadeus, IATA or any airline named. Vendor and association material is cited as what each party said, not as evidence of what their systems do. Terminair carries no byline.