Flight Centre Corporate unifies global monitoring to cut cloud costs

Flight Centre Corporate has adopted a global observability strategy utilising the Datadog platform to streamline operations and minimise cloud computing costs across its worldwide organisation.

The Corporate division, which includes the FCM Travel and Corporate Traveller brands, has implemented Datadog to consolidate multiple tools into a single platform, providing real-time and comprehensive visibility into the health of its digital systems. This change supports the company's drive for increased operational efficiency, system resilience, and a seamless user experience.

Tool consolidation

Executives at Flight Centre Corporate highlighted significant gains since adopting Datadog across both domestic and global teams. The company's previous setup relied on numerous disparate tools working in different environments, which limited their capacity to proactively manage performance issues at an international scale. The new platform enables more consistent monitoring and faster detection and resolution of issues.

"Before Datadog, we had multiple tools across various environments, which were limiting our ability to effectively proactively manage performance at a global scale," said Grant Currey, A/NZ CTO at Flight Centre Corporate. "We now have a globally consistent observability layer that provides complete visibility into our systems' health and enables our teams to prevent issues before they escalate."

Impact in Australia

Within Australia, Flight Centre Corporate's digital systems handle up to 20,000 bookings each day, with over 65 per cent of customer journeys fully automated. As business volume has increased, so has the importance of rapidly identifying and remediating digital issues. The adoption of Datadog has accelerated problem detection and resolution, supporting more reliable services and streamlined workflows for both customers and staff.

Currey added, "Datadog has given us a global platform to shift from reactive issue management to proactive incident prevention at a global scale. The benefits of this are being felt at every level of the Flight Centre Corporate business - from our executive leadership to our travel consultants and, most importantly, our valued customers."

User experience and cost management

The deployment includes Datadog Real User Monitoring (RUM), which offers insights into how system issues impact staff and customers in real-time. This has improved productivity and response times by flagging performance problems as they arise and helping teams visualise and address delays or outages.

Flight Centre Corporate is also using Datadog Synthetic Monitoring, which simulates user journeys to detect problems earlier and with greater accuracy, reducing false alerts and improving the speed of root cause analysis. Combined with Datadog Cloud Cost Management, these tools have contributed to measurable savings by aligning technical visibility with cost intelligence, ensuring that resource allocation is both effective and sustainable as the company plans for further growth.

"Our business is built on people, relationships, and the experiences we deliver. Having the right technology in place is essential to upholding those values," said Currey. "Downtime is not an option. We need the systems, visibility, and accountability that Datadog brings."

Global expansion

Following positive results within Australia, Flight Centre Corporate is now extending the Datadog-backed observability framework across its international operations, part of a broader strategy to standardise processes and further reduce operational risks.

Rob Thorne, Vice President for APJ at Datadog, commented on the partnership, stating, "Transparency is at the heart of the travel industry; without it, flights are delayed, bookings are missed, luggage is lost, and both staff and customers lose out. By using Datadog to create a resilient observability strategy, Flight Centre's corporate travel business has de-risked its operations to support its business strategy, drive robust and reliable experiences for its stakeholders, and pave the way to major cost savings."

The rollout of Datadog's platform has been noted at senior leadership levels within Flight Centre Corporate due to its effect on cost reduction and operational stability, with the potential for further adoption as digital demands continue to increase globally.