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An employee of a travel agency leaving the Maharaja, Air India's mascot, in front of the airline's office in Bangalore on Tuesday. Employees of other travel agencies also left posters and publicity material in front of the airline office to protest its decision to reduce the agents' commission fee to 5 per cent from 7 per cent. - G.R.N. Somashekar

Bangalore , March 22

TRAVEL agents on Tuesday staged a protest in front of Air India's office against the airline's decision to reduce the agents' commission to 5 per cent from 7 per cent from May 1.

Members of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), Travel Agents' Federation of India (TAFI) and other such associations gathered outside the Air India's office to stage the protest and also returned the publicity materials to the airline officials. They also submitted a memorandum to the airline's officials in this regard.

TAAI's Karnataka chapter chairman, Mr Niranjan Gupta, said over 80 per cent of Air India's business is generated by travel agents and the airline should not succumb to the pressure of foreign airlines to reduce the commission fee.

TAFI's Karnataka Chapter Chairman, Mr Sampath Kumar, said the 2-percentage point reduction in commission from 7 per cent will bring down the travel agents' revenue by 30 per cent. He said the agency commission is a compensation to travel agents for the work they do on the airline's behalf, which includes, selling, handling, servicing and processing traffic.

Mr Sampath Kumar said Air India's move to reduce the commission was baffling because while it sparked off a fare war on the London route by bringing down the fares, at the same time, it offered an additional discount commission of up to 6 per cent to select corporates under the garb of productivity linked bonus thereby diluting its own revenues. If an airline can offer low fares and such high incentives, why should it reduce the agency commission, Mr Sampath Kumar said.

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