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Flight Centre and Qantas have pushed corporate Australia’s shift to New Distribution Capability into the mainstream, with Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) saying 92 per cent of customers across FCM Travel, Corporate Traveller and Stage and Screen are now live on Qantas NDC.

That is no longer a technology trial tucked away in the back office. It is a sizeable change in how business travel is shopped, booked and serviced and, increasingly, where companies may find savings that traditional distribution does not always surface.

FCTG says more than 500,000 Qantas NDC flight segments have been booked since January 2026. It also points to one customer case study showing annual savings of more than $140,000.

That figure should not be mistaken for a guaranteed result across every travel program, but it provides a useful indication of the commercial value FCTG believes the newer distribution model can unlock.

“We’ve reached a point where NDC isn’t an experiment – it’s becoming the default for corporate Australia,” said Nikki Ping, Global Manager of Travel Distribution, FCM Travel and Corporate Traveller.

“In a market where seats are harder to come by, and fares are under pressure, full NDC access means our customers aren’t leaving value on the table. Every dollar we save them is a dollar they can put back into growing their business.”

Corporate travel moves beyond the experiment

For corporate travel managers, the appeal is fairly straightforward.

Qantas NDC can provide access to richer airline content, selected offers and ancillary products, together with servicing capabilities that are difficult or unavailable through some traditional distribution channels.

In other words, the plumbing may be technical, but the outcome is decidedly commercial.

If a travel manager can see a broader range of relevant offers, book services more efficiently, and reduce leakage from the travel program, the benefits tend to flow through to the balance sheet.

Qantas Head of Offers and Orders Transformation Nathan Smeulders put it neatly:

“This isn’t just about distribution plumbing it’s about giving customers more choice, more value, and a smoother journey from search to service.”

The rollout did not happen overnight.

FCTG says the partnership reflects about two years of work across technology, commercial and operational teams at both companies, with testing focused not merely on connecting systems but on ensuring consultants could confidently service bookings once the technology went live.

“There were lots of multi-party calls in the lead-up to go-live,” Ping said. “The focus wasn’t just on connecting systems, but on making sure consultants could service customers confidently from day one.”

That operational point matters.

NDC has often generated more excitement in airline boardrooms than at the consultant’s desk, where the real test is whether a booking can be changed, serviced and explained without turning an ordinary itinerary into an archaeological dig.

Why NDC matters

The broader industry direction is clear.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) defines New Distribution Capability as an industry-supported standard designed to improve communications between airlines and travel sellers and allow airlines to distribute richer and more relevant offers through different sales channels.

Qantas, for its part, says its NDC platform can give businesses access to new types of offers, richer information and enhanced servicing through participating travel management companies and online booking tools.

That means NDC is becoming less about another acronym for consultants to remember and more about how airlines sell, display, and service products.

For corporate buyers, the important questions remain reassuringly old-fashioned: Does it save money? Does it save time? And does it make travel easier to manage?

FCTG believes the early numbers are providing increasingly persuasive answers.

Flight Centre takes Qantas NDC global

The company is now looking beyond the Australian rollout.

FCTG says international Qantas NDC adoption doubled month on month in mid-June 2026 after online connectivity went live, with Australia and New Zealand remaining the most-booked destinations through the channel.

The next frontier is likely to be less about simply switching NDC on and more about what companies can do with it.

FCTG is pointing to deeper personalisation, AI-enabled self-service and agent-assist tools that could automate routine changes while leaving consultants to handle the complicated work that still requires judgement and experience.

“By pairing order-level data with AI virtual assistants and agent-assist tools, we can automate routine changes and keep consultants focused on complex cases,” Ping said.

“The result is a faster, smarter experience for the traveller and greater savings that customers can channel straight back into growth.”

For Australian corporate travel, that may be the more important milestone.

NDC is moving beyond the language of pilots and platforms and into the less glamorous but far more persuasive world of measurable savings, consultant productivity and traveller service.

And when corporate travel technology begins talking in dollars rather than acronyms, finance directors tend to listen.