Qantas extends carbon offset flights to travel agents

Australian Qantas has today announced a significant extension to its carbon offset program, enabling travel agents to help their customers fly carbon neutral.

The national carrier is the first airline to offer customers the ability to purchase carbon offsets when booking flights in the indirect channel, with the feature made possible through the NDC-enabled Qantas Distribution Platform (QDP).

The ability to Fly Carbon Neutral has traditionally only been available to customers who ‘Tick-the-Box’ when booking flights directly via qantas.com. This enhancement to the QDP will see Qantas support more conservation and environmental projects in Australia and around the world.

Over the years these projects have included protecting the Great Barrier Reef and working with Indigenous communities to reduce wildfires in Western Australia.

Qantas Frequent Flyer members and Qantas Business Rewards customers can earn 10 Qantas Points for every dollar spent offsetting their emissions, one of the highest standard earn rates across the program.

All Travel Agents who are making bookings using the content from the Qantas Distribution Platform will have access to the Fly Carbon Neutral feature. To find out how to connect to the QDP, visit Qantas Agency Connect or speak with your technology partner.

Comments – to be attributed to Qantas Executive Manager Sales & Distribution, Igor Kwiatkowski

“Many of our customers have told us how important it is for them to be able to offset their flight, and until now, those who booked through a travel agent weren’t able to do so conveniently.

“As we carry Australians to their destinations, we’re very conscious of working to minimise the impact we have on the environment. This development is part of that sustainability strategy, while also delivering on our commitment to better support the industry in selling and servicing their bookings with Qantas.

“Through our Fly Carbon Neutral program, we have been offsetting carbon emissions for more than a decade. We’re confident we’ll continue to build on this with the support of our agency partners.

“This is the first of a range of new types of offers we’ll be making available to agents as we progress our NDC program over the coming months all designed to more closely align the functionality of indirect agent channels with qantas.com.”