An All-of-Government panel of 12 air travel services suppliers representing 15 airlines offer agencies extensive coverage to most corners of the globe.
The contract benefits apply to flights purchased by an agency for its organisational purposes; this includes purchase of flights for an agency’s customers (such as patients and prisoners), contractors and visitors etc.
The scope of the contract includes flights:
The contract scope includes flights for individuals and groups of passengers, although the benefits for each differ.
Leisure travel: The contract’s benefits are not available for flights that are paid for personally (such as family accompanying a business traveller or a side-trip added to a business trip for leisure purposes). However, some suppliers may offer to apply their benefits to this type of travel to varied extents.
Travel management services: there is a separate AoG contract for this.
Once an agency/school has completed the joining process they can begin purchasing from the contract and passenger’s travel is conducted as usual. See using the air travel services contract for what we need to get your school/agency set up.
Using the Air travel services contract
All international travel needs to be booked through a travel management services supplier (TMSS). Domestic travel may be booked either through a TMSS or directly with the suppliers. See the booking travel page for further details.
The air travel services contract supports a number of objectives including greater airline choice, flexibility, and adaptable services for your agency. The new contract’s suppliers offer a range of airfare discounts and additional benefits which enable agencies to reduce air travel expenditure. Furthermore, agencies and panel suppliers are able to negotiate and, use a Service Supplement to agree:
Suppliers may approach agencies proposing service supplements, especially agencies whose spend is considered significant by the supplier. Some suppliers may seek market share commitments in exchange for greater discounts or additional benefits as part of a service supplement. See our guidance in the contract documents section of this page.
The contract offers agencies and schools a panel of suppliers with a range of airfare discounts and a broad range of related benefits. Agencies and schools can use the most suitable airline based on flight schedule, route and airfare price. Travellers can utilise the additional benefits offered such as lounge access and excess baggage discounts during their journey.
Collection or non-collection of redeemable loyalty points continues to be a choice for each agency or school. In addition, there are benefits relating to discounted group travel, flexibility to fare rules, and removal or reduction of some airline fees, which will contribute to agency savings.
No minimum volume spend is required.
For a full list of the contract benefits each airline offers please visit the suppliers page.
Guidance to support broader outcomes:
Airfare savings are generated through a range of discounts which are applied to supplier’s standard airfare prices (‘published fares’) at the time of quoting.
The contract will enable agencies to generate savings through:
Agencies who participate in the Air travel services contract don't need to go through a full procurement process of their own, which saves time, effort and cost.
Most AoG contracts include an administration fee. This fee is a simple, effective and transparent way of recovering the cost of developing, sourcing, implementing and managing AoG contracts.
For the Air travel services contract the administration fee represents 1.5% of the spend on international tickets. The administration fee does not apply to domestic tickets. The fee is built into the flight price paid by the agency.
Suppliers collect the administration fee and pass it on to MBIE - agencies don't need to make any payments to MBIE.
To be able to purchase from this contract agencies and schools first need to join.
Each participant in this contract has responsibilities that they must meet as part of that contract.
The AoG travel pricing model is recognised as best practice and is followed by three AoG travel contracts: