Travel agents will have access to more fares and opportunities to earn more through dynamic commission offers when Qantas launches its new distribution model next year, the Aussie carrier has announced.
Unveiled this morning (TD breaking news), the new model will roll out to the market on 01 Jul 2025, and reflects what Qantas described as a global drive towards IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) adoption.
From this date, Qantas said agents will be able to access the carrier’s content in a number of different ways, including EDIFACT, standard NDC, and premium NDC, the latter of which being by invitation only.
Some of these options will be surcharge-free, while others will incur ticket surcharges.
Speaking at a briefing early this morning, Qantas CEO – International and Freight, Cam Wallace, said the carrier had been working with GDS partners and certified travel technology partners to set up a model for flexibility, success, and enough time for travel agencies to transfer their business models across to the new tech solution.
“NDC has huge benefits for both customers and agents compared to traditional indirect booking systems.
“For agents, they’ll have access to more fares and opportunities to earn through dynamic commission offers and provides them with the tools to create tailored trips that go far beyond a basic fare and itinerary.
“Agents today are using booking systems that were built before the internet even existed. Customers have told us they want a more personalised, flexible and seamless booking experience, whether they book directly with us or indirectly through a travel agent or a corporate travel manager,” Wallace added.
CEO Flight Centre Travel Group, Graham Turner said: “NDC is the future for our industry, and FCTG is at the forefront of this change working with Qantas and airline partners to drive its adoption.
“This technology will bring additional benefits to our customers including enhanced capability, access to richer content and greater personalisation.
“We are empowering our agents to be equipped to provide our customers with access to the widest range of products, fares and airline services via NDC. FCTG works closely with our GDS partners and have invested in our own aggregation specialist, TPConnects to support the scalable rollout of NDC.
“We look forward to working closely with Qantas to help deliver these benefits and as part of our objective of securing access to the widest range of product for our people and customers,” Turner added.
Chris Wilding, Senior Vice President, Air Distribution, Sabre Travel Solutions, also weighed in, stating Qantas continues to enhance its content offerings with more sophisticated and tailored solutions, Sabre’s marketplace can significantly help Qantas distribute this content to travellers worldwide through our extensive network of travel sellers.
“Equally vital is empowering travel agents with the flexibility and choice to access and compare a wide variety of content, from traditional EDIFACT to NDC, within a seamless and unified experience.
“Sabre’s multi-source platform normalizes diverse content types, enabling agents to shop, book, and service offerings efficiently through a single, intuitive interface – driving better decisions and superior service delivery for their travellers.”
Meanwhile, Qantas has appointed Oronzo Miccoli as Head of Corporate and Government Sales in Australia.
He will start his new role in January 2025 and oversee the management and support of key corporate and government customer accounts across Australia, as well as set the corporate sales strategy for Qantas.
“We’re so excited to be welcoming Oronzo back to Australia and into this incredibly important role supporting our corporate customers and stakeholders across the country,” Qantas Executive Manager, Global Sales & Distribution, Kathryn Robertson said.
“His strong leadership skills, extensive experience in managing trade and government partnerships and deep understanding of the industry have prepared Oronzo well to lead this critical area of the business,” she added.
Miccoli has been with Qantas since 2013 and is currently based in Los Angeles as Senior Executive Vice President for the Americas.
