LCCs Go Corporate: APIs, Flexible Fares, and Premium Seats

Do low-cost carriers and business travel belong to different worlds? Not entirely. Extra legroom, flexible fares, and a growing presence in corporate booking tools are no longer isolated experiments among LCCs. Taken together, these upgrades point to a structural shift: LCCs are expanding into a segment historically dominated by legacy airlines.

At the same time, full-service carriers are pushing back — introducing new economy fare tiers to capture price-sensitive demand. But that’s a topic for another article. Here, we focus on how LCCs are winning over corporate road warriors — and what TMCs and OBTs should consider to capture these opportunities.

Where corporate travel and LCC meet, and why TMCs should care

Low-cost carriers have not traditionally been the first choice for business travel — a segment long associated with airport lounges, premium seating, and high-end in-flight service. Yet the reality is beginning to challenge this long-standing perception.

“We tend to think of a corporate traveler as a middle-aged decision-maker in a suit, carrying a briefcase,” says Alice Ferrari, CEO and Co-Founder of Kyte, a modern API platform that connects travel companies directly to airline content from leading low-cost carriers such as Ryanair, easyJet, and Wizz Air: “But it could just as easily be an engineer relocating between sites, or a blue-collar worker sent for training. These travelers don’t necessarily require business class tickets or fast-track security.”

The same applies to the workforce of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), regardless of seniority. Companies with up to 200 employees account for roughly a quarter of the business travel market. They are less likely to operate formal travel programs or rely on travel management companies (TMCs), which means fewer policy constraints — but also greater price sensitivity. That combination makes them a natural fit for low-cost carriers.

“In truth, SME and unmanaged business travel represent billions in revenue — a huge portion of the market that is often overlooked,” Ferrari adds. “Startups, family businesses — taken together — bring substantial value to low-cost airlines.” And to intermediaries capable of capturing demand outside the traditional flow controlled by global distribution systems (GDSs) and TMCs.  

The competitive price is only part of the LCC appeal.  The real advantage lies in the scale. Today, airlines operating under the low-cost model collectively account for around 34 percent of global air traffic.

In Europe, 2025 marked a turning point: for the first time, low-cost carriers held a larger share of flights than mainline airlines (35.4 percent versus 34.7 percent). The trend is also visible at the individual level. Ryanair and easyJet lead in daily departures, with around 3,184 and 1,611 flights respectively — ahead of legacy carriers such as Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, and Air France.

“Because of their frequency and dense route networks, it’s only natural that low-cost carriers are becoming a viable option for business,” Ferrari says. In practice, that density means that in many cases, LCCs are simply the flights available.  “If you are living in a small town, you may have only an LCC. If you need to catch the first flight, it may be the only one departing that early,” explains David Marciano, COO and Co-Founder of Metis Digital, an NDC-first B2B booking platform for the corporate sector.

Another factor accelerating LCCs’ expansion into corporate travel is API-driven distribution. “Over the past decade, the industry has become far more accustomed to API connectivity — and LCCs were among the first to build APIs for partner integration, including in corporate travel,” Alice Ferrari notes.

Last but not least is the growing focus on sustainability across businesses. Under European regulation — particularly the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive — tracking and disclosing a company’s carbon footprint is no longer a voluntary initiative but a compliance requirement. Other regions are moving in the same direction, albeit at different speeds and with varying levels of rigor.

In this context, low-cost carriers, with their younger fleets and high-density seating, often outperform many legacy counterparts on emissions per passenger. This is reflected in industry rankings, where Scoot leads the 2025 list of the most carbon-efficient airlines, with Wizz Air and Frontier Airlines also among the top performers.

For companies and platforms targeting corporate clients, including low-cost carriers in the supplier mix is increasingly less a choice and more a necessity. The question is no longer whether LCCs will move deeper into corporate travel — but how.

What LCCs do to get closer to business travelers

Starting in January 2026, Southwest Airlines — the airline that scaled the low-cost model and set the template for the industry —  introduced assigned seating and extra legroom as part of a new premium bundle, Choice Extra. According to CEO Bob Jordan, the move is aimed at growing the airline’s corporate share by offering products that better appeal to business travelers. To enable the transition from its 55-year open-seating model, Southwest reconfigured its fleet of more than 800 aircraft.

But the cabin upgrade is only the latest step in a broader set of changes the airline has been making to capture corporate demand.

Southwest has, in fact, appealed to business travelers from the outset, offering high-frequency schedules and no change or cancellation fees — a level of flexibility that many LCCs and even some full-service carriers struggled to match. In 2000, it launched SWABIZ, a direct corporate booking tool that allows travel managers to reserve flights, track spend, and earn rewards, bypassing GDSs and TMCs and their associated costs. This approach helped the airline secure a strong foothold among smaller companies.

In 2007, Southwest added Business Select, a bundled fare aimed at time-sensitive and higher-yield travelers. It included priority boarding — critical in an open-seating environment — along with bonus loyalty points and a free cocktail. The product marked an early attempt to capture premium revenue while not investing in a separate cabin.

Since 2010, the airline has relied on its Southwest Partner Services (SPS) API, allowing customers to integrate fares and content into their online booking tools (OBTs)— without switching between screens.

However, reliance on its own channels made it difficult to scale visibility across managed travel programs.  After years of prioritizing direct sales, Southwest Airlines expanded into industry-standard GDS distribution — first via Amadeus and Travelport in 2020, followed by Sabre in 2021 — along with settlement via Airline Reproting Corporation (ARC)  to target US-based TMCs.

While GDS integration addressed distribution, product gaps remained. For many corporate travelers, the uncertainty of open boarding — and the risk of ending up in an undesirable seat — remained a deterrent. So, the recent introduction of assigned seating and premium rows marks the next logical step.

Further progress likely lies in NDC, which would enable more flexible and personalized merchandising of these products. For now, however, Southwest Airlines is taking a cautious approach. As Rob Brown, Managing Director of B2B Strategy and Services, put it, “We want to make sure the API we have in the marketplace is standard… And that upgrading our API to NDC creates that better experience.”  Alas, that’s not quite the case with NDC and its versions  — at least for now.

Anyway, Southwest’s trajectory reflects a broader pattern in how low-cost carriers expand into corporate travel. Typically, this involves three phases:

• Enabling corporate access — through branded booking tools, APIs, GDS integrations, and aggregator partnerships;
• Adding soft business products — flexible bundles and business-focused add-ons; and
• Investing in hard upgrades — recliners and lie-flat options.

Airlines move through these stages at different speeds — and not always in the same order. Below, we explore how different LCCs navigate this progression.

Enabling corporate access

There are two distinct segments within corporate travel: price-sensitive, often unmanaged travelers (typically SMEs and individual bookers) and large enterprises that rely on TMC services.  While many LCCs try to target both, they use different channels.

Direct corporate portals

Unlike large corporations, smaller organizations rarely run formal RFP (request-for-proposal) processes with airlines — only a minority (around 17 percent) do. Instead, a much larger share (44 percent)  relies on non-negotiated supplier products and programs. This includes self-service corporate portals through which companies can access discounted or bundled fares, track spend, support duty of care, and manage travel in one place — without TMC fees.

Many LCCs have invested in these direct channels to attract SMEs while bypassing GDS distribution costs.  For example, Volaris — Mexico’s largest airline by passengers — captures much of its local business travel through its dedicated portal, VEmpresa. Others, such as Frontier Airlines and Ryanair, lean more heavily on API-driven distribution and third-party integrations rather than building full-featured corporate interfaces.

API connectivity

More than 60 LCC airlines — including major players like Ryanair, Wizz Air, IndiGo, and AirAsia — rely on Navitaire’s New Skies PSS, which provides API-based connectivity as part of the platform. This makes it easier for them to expose their inventory and drive ancillary revenue through direct integrations— although each airline still implements and manages these APIs independently.

The challenge is that standard online booking tools cannot natively consume LCC APIs. Bringing these airlines into a corporate environment typically requires intermediaries, acting as translation layers between fragmented airline systems and corporate platforms.

The undisputed heavyweight in this space, Travelfusion, was the first to successfully normalize LCC direct connects into a single XML pipe. Today, the platform founded in 2000 maintains connections to over 400 LCCs and remains the default choice for most major TMCs and OBTs when GDS content is unavailable.

Newer platforms such as Duffel or Kyte rely on more modern, developer-friendly JSON APIs, making integration significantly faster for newer travel tech companies. While connecting fewer airlines, they offer deeper integrations, more reliable servicing, and a more consistent, standardized interface.

But a translation layer doesn’t solve the problem of limited automation. LCC APIs often lack robust support for post-booking operations — the critical processes that take place after payment is completed.

“For a TMC, it’s a nightmare to sell LCCs,” says David from Metis Digital. “Changes, refunds, rebookings — the functionality just isn’t there to support corporate travel. If it’s not available via API, the agency has to handle it offline — through chats or calls with the airline — like 10 or 20 years ago.”

Alice from Kyte notes that LCCs are starting to recognize the high importance of post-booking operations for corporates: “We’re seeing a number of airlines that already support some degree of post-ticketing via their APIs — easyJet, for example, and Transavia, likely due to being part of a larger airline group (Air France-KLM). Wizz Air has also announced plans to introduce post-ticketing capabilities.”

Some LCCs go further in making their content accessible to third-party channels by adopting NDC. While NDC itself introduces challenges for TMCs, it still provides more structured and predictable interactions than proprietary LCC APIs.

Several budget carriers are currently participating in IATA’s Airline Retailing Maturity (ARM) program, with their NDC capabilities officially verified and listed in the ARM registry. Other LCCs—such as Frontier Airlines and Norwegian Air Shuttle—offer NDC APIs outside of IATA’s program.

That said, the mere presence of an NDC API doesn’t guarantee full post-booking functionality. In practice, most implementations cover only the shopping phase, not the servicing phase. Notable exceptions include Frontier, whose APIs support actions such as flight changes and cancellations.

GDS connectivity

Historically, the low-cost carrier model has operated outside the traditional booking flow built around EDIFACT-based GDS channels. While some LCCs experimented with GDS distribution as early as the 2000s to access corporate travel, most withdrew, deterred by complexity and high fees.

The relationship began to shift as GDS providers introduced workarounds to accommodate budget carriers.

In 2009, Travelport launched Air Content Hub (ACH) to aggregate fares directly from ticketless airline APIs and expose them through a unified interface. This allowed corporate booking tools to display LCC content alongside traditional carriers, while payments were typically handled via credit card, bypassing the standard Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP). Today, ACH aggregation technology still serves as a critical backend engine for Travelport’s modernized, cloud-based environment, Travelport+.

Amadeus followed in 2013 with Light Ticketing, a layer that normalized LCC API content by assigning a virtual ticket number to otherwise ticketless bookings. This enabled LCCs to appear within GDS workflows without ATPCO fare filing, IATA e-ticketing, or other costly legacy requirements. easyJet was the first airline onboarded under this approach.

Sabre answered with its Direct Connect model   — a similar XML bridge that ingested LCC content and forced it into the rigid EDIFACT-style structure — with JetBlue among the early adopters. A decade later, this approach is being fully replaced by SabreMosaic, a cloud-native platform built on IATA's Offer and Order architecture. In late 2025, Volaris debuted in the GDS channel, adding to a growing pool of roughly 150 low-cost carriers whose content is natively integrated into the ecosystem.

While API-first distribution has become the primary way LCCs connect to GDSs, some budget carriers still rely on the traditional booking flow to capture higher-yield corporate travelers. The aim is to appear indistinguishable from legacy airlines, allowing TMCs to use standard processes like BSP/ARC settlement, where payments are reconciled periodically rather than charged instantly per transaction.

This legacy setup also remains critical for supporting interline and codeshare partnerships, which are difficult to sustain in a purely API-driven model. Among LCCs, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue stand out for deeper GDS participation. JetBlue, in particular, is often seen as one of the most GDS-friendly LCCs in North America.

At the other end of the spectrum, Ryanair occupies a very different position in the corporate travel ecosystem. Over the years, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers and flight frequency repeatedly tested partnerships with GDSs, only to pull back in favor of its direct distribution model.

Signs of a warming relationship seemed to appear in 2023, when Ryanair re-entered the GDS landscape, signing new agreements with Sabre and Amadeus. In the same year, it also struck a direct integration deal with SAP Concur.

But the truce proved short-lived. In spring 2026, Ryanair restricted post-ticketing servicing on its APIs. Now, TMCs are required  to use Ryanair’s own Travel Agent Direct platform for changes, rather than the original GDS booking tools. Industry players argued that such terms prioritize the airline’s commercial model over operational efficiency—and, in some cases, passenger experience.

Introducing flexible bundles

After Southwest Airlines showed it could attract business travelers without introducing a traditional business class cabin, other carriers quickly followed — bundling flexibility, priority perks, and modest comfort upgrades such as extra legroom into a single offer.

Fare bundles for business travelers compared

In Europe, easyJet was an early mover. In 2011, it launched Flexi Fares, combining a checked bag, fast-track security, and flexible ticket changes. Around the same time, it rolled out allocated seating — a notable shift for the low-cost model — acknowledging that business travelers value certainty over the scramble for seats.

At a broader level, fare families labeled “Flex,” “Biz,” or “Smart” are designed to fit neatly into corporate booking systems, which struggle with fragmented ancillary purchases. Sometimes they’re only available on the approved third-party channels (like GDSs or via aggregator connection), not on the website.

To better align with TMC workflows for GDS-based bookings, carriers such as easyJet, Norwegian Air Shuttle, and Transavia feed these transactions into the BSP so they appear in agency sales reports in the back-office system — a key requirement for automated corporate accounting. Yet the underlying economics remain unchanged. Settlement typically bypasses the traditional BSP cycle: the airline acts as the merchant of record, charging the traveler's or agency's card at the time of booking.

Investing in hard upgrades

Most low-cost carriers targeting corporate travelers stop at “soft” upgrades, keeping a single economy cabin. The premium offer typically means front-row seats with extra legroom and, in some cases, a blocked middle seat — not a distinct class of service. A smaller group goes further, investing in hard product: recliners, lie-flat beds, even lounges.

AirAsia X was the first LCC to introduce lie-flat seats in 2010. But it was JetBlue that reshaped expectations. In 2014, it launched Mint, featuring lie-flat beds and sliding privacy doors on the narrow-body Airbus A321 flying transcontinental routes — a sharp break from the wide-body aircraft typically associated with business class. Pricing was just as disruptive. One-way fares started at $599 — roughly 1.5 to 2 times cheaper than comparable legacy tickets.

Still, JetBlue has long had a gap between its core economy product and Mint. On short- and medium-haul routes, it lost travelers who wanted more comfort — but not a lie-flat seat — to legacy carriers.

That’s now changing. In 2026, JetBlue plans to introduce a new domestic premium cabin, retrofitting more than 170 aircraft by the end of 2027. The update will add two to three rows of first-class-style recliners, while standard economy legroom will shrink from 32 inches to 30 — closer to the industry norm.

In effect, the airline is shifting upmarket, partly at the expense of its once-generous economy offer. The move is reinforced by the launch of its first BlueHouse lounge at John F. Kennedy International Airport in late 2025, with further expansion planned in 2026.

A Love–Hate Story: Is a Happy Ending Coming?

Today, business travel still accounts for a modest 14 percent of the global low-cost carrier market. But that balance is shifting: the share is expected to more than double by 2034. Even now, its importance exceeds its size. Corporate travelers generate higher yields than leisure or VFR (visiting friends and relatives) segments — and capturing that demand can become a core survival strategy, especially amid rising fuel costs.

What should TMCs and corporate travel tech providers keep in mind?

While many LCCs — and even ULCCs — are pushing into corporate travel, from SMEs to Fortune 500 clients, execution still falls short of ambition. On the airline side, readiness is often held back by post-booking gaps. APIs do not consistently support full servicing, and some carriers — notably Ryanair — deliberately limit automation for third-party channels.

Beyond servicing gaps, commercial issues remain. Low-cost carriers like easyJet, Transavia, and Ryanair often show different content across corporate channels and APIs. Some also add fees to API bookings, leaving TMCs to explain price differences and missing options to travelers.

At the same time, TMCs and corporate booking tools aren’t fully LCC-ready either. Strict travel policies and BSP/ARC-based processes create friction when dealing with ticketless models.

The direction is clear: corporate travel buyers will see more LCC content in their programs. But making it work requires adjustments on both sides — TMCs must rethink policies and payment workflows, while LCCs must strengthen post-booking capabilities and offer more predictable commercial frameworks.