Sunday, November 11, 2018

Travel agents oppose Air India’s move to single GDS for ticket sale

Mumbai: Travel agents have objected to national carrier Air India selecting a single Global Distribution System (GDS) for the sale of its flight tickets, as most agents are on another GDS platform, which will now not offer Air India seats.

Representatives of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) and Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) predicted that the airline is going to record a 40% drop in sales as a result of its decision. Travel agents already held one round of talks with the Air India management last week, without any outcome.

“Air India has sent shockwaves through travel trade in India after the announcement of offering its inventory solely through its select GDS and disconnecting its inventory of another,” Sunil Kumar, president, TAAI said.

Travel agents said that Air India has been reeling under tremendous financial challenges and instead of this move they should be finding ways to increase seat sales via easy access through GDS channels. “The response given by Air India is that this would save distribution costs. This is surprising since the airline wants to save ₹200 in distribution costs and lose thousands over seat sale,” Mr. Kumar said.
10/11/18 Aditya Anand/The Hindu
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