Indian travel agents surrender capping letters to Singapore Airlines

Mumbai: In a significant development to the 102-day and still going withdrawal from Singapore Airlines (SQ) on the issue of agency commissions, the Travel Agents Fraternity of India yesterday surrendered their capping letter to the airline. The capping letters were surrendered by 1,000 agents on a pan-India level in various key cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and others where SQ has its presence. In Mumbai, around 200-plus and in Bangalore more than 120 capping letters were surrendered at the airline’s office. Pradip Lulla, President, TAFI said, “We have just surrendered 200 capping letters to Singapore Airlines and the situation remains the same as it was. We will be happy to sell SQ tickets again as soon as SQ accedes to our legitimate demands i.e agency commissions.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Iqbal Mulla, Treasurer, TAAI stated, “Surrendering our ticket capping does not mean that we don’t want to work with Singapore Airlines. We want to work with them commercially; however we need our legitimate demand of five per cent commissions.” Travel Agents Fraternity of India comprise 2,864 IATA accredited agents and about 50,000 non-IATA agents. Of the 2,864 IATA-accredited agents, not all agents have the authority to sell Singapore Airlines tickets or tickets of any other carrier. “Approximately 1,300 agents are authorised to sell SQ tickets, of which 1,000 have surrendered their capping letters,” said Ajay Prakash, National General Secretary, TAFI, adding that, the DGCA looks into matters related to aviation but travel agents issues are completely ignored. There is a dire need for a regulatory body from the government to look into travel agents issues as close to 85 per cent of the airline business is done by the travel agents.
09/04/09 Krupa Vora/TravelBizMonitor

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Categories: Foreign Apr 2009