Travel agents may get their pie from foreign airlines

New Delhi: The aviation regulator has ruled that foreign carriers should pay commission to ticketing agents, sounding the death knell for a fee-based system initiated by foreign airlines last November.
The decision by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will benefit about 2,400 travel agents in the country as the 3% commission they used to receive from the airlines was much higher than what they charge travellers as transaction fee. This will also benefit the customer, who will escape paying the transaction fee, and may also force the agent to share a part of his commission.
“We have found that the foreign airlines’ decision to withdraw the commission system is not in compliance with the law,” said an official with the regulator. “In the past, Air India and Jet Airways had introduced zero-commission systems, but they had to reinstate the 3% commission to agents,” he said, requesting anonymity. In all, 14 foreign airlines, including Lufthansa, Air France, British Airways and Qatar Airlines, had resorted to a zero-commission regime last year and introduced a transaction fee-based model wherein the traveller pays a fee of Rs 250-Rs 5,000 per ticket to the agent, depending on the relative bargaining power of the parties.
More than 85% air travellers in the country book their tickets through travel agents.
19/10/09 Nirbhay Kumar/Economic Times

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Categories: Foreign Oct 2009, Indian Aviation- In General Oct 2009