This is an awesome post - nice work! It does a fantastic job of laying out clearly the incredible complexity that underpins travel (which totally shocked me when I started in the industry).

I'm Tim, and I lead airline partnerships at [Duffel][1] (YC S18) - although I'm an engineer by trade ;) We're building a new API platform to make it easy for anyone to sell flights (think "Stripe for travel").

We make integration simple with our beautiful REST API (no XML or EDIFACT) and allow anyone to sign up in 30 seconds, with no need to become an accredited IATA agent.

We're rebuilding the industry's infrastructure from scratch, with direct connections to 20+ airlines' systems using the new technology mentioned in the article, NDC, rather than going through the traditional GDSs like Sabre and Amadeus.

If you want to give our API a try for yourself, you can sign up on our website and book your first flight in our sandbox in less than 2 minutes.

Equally, if this sounds like an interesting problem space to you - we're hiring, so do reach out. My email is in my bio.

[1]: https://duffel.com