Tickets from airline office to cost less

New Delhi: From tomorrow, air passengers will find their tickets Rs 350-Rs 10,000 cheaper if they buy them from the airline office or website rather than through travel agents.
Full-service carriers Jet Airways, Kingfisher and Air India have told the travel agents that they would not levy the transaction fee on air tickets from tomorrow. This was decided in a meeting held today between the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) and the executives of the three airlines.
Transaction fee, ranging between Rs 350 and Rs 10,000, is to be levied by the travel agents in lieu of the 5 per cent commission that the airlines have stopped giving them since November 1, 2008. In all, 16 carriers including the three full-service carriers have shifted to the zero-commission mode.
“The airlines have now decided to go back on their word of levying the transaction fee on the air tickets. This means that only the agents can levy the transaction fee now, though we have not decided whether we will go ahead with it because that would steer customers away from us,” said Ajay Prakash, General Secretary, TAFI.
Even though the transaction fee was the airlines’ proposal to the travel agents, the agents in turn had asked the airlines to levy a similar fee so that there would be a level playing field in terms of pricing.
25/11/08 Anirban Chowdhury/Business Standard

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Nov 2008