The Hindu Business Line : British Airways to cut agents' commission to 5%

FOLLOWING the foot steps of Air India, the UK carrier British Airways today decided to cut the commission payable to travel agents from the existing seven per cent to five per cent.

The cut back in commission payable to agents will come into effect from May 1.While globally, travel agents function on a zero per cent commission, the foreign airlines operating from India have announced a reduction in commission payable to agents to five per cent, sources said and justified the decision on major investment made by the airlines to bring down the distribution costs of the agents.

"The systems which are available now offer a host of cost saving advantages including providing e-tickets and fares levels which substantially reduce the work of a travel agent," sources said when asked on the reason for introduction of the proposed cut back.

The travel agent community has already hinted at the possibility of not selling any tickets of airlines that implement the decision of lowering commission payable to travel agents.

Similarly, a spokesman of the Travel Agents Federation of India said though the agents were not looking at boycotting airlines that cut back on commission, the "motivation" to sell tickets of such airlines would be "less".

Incidentally, late last year the travel agents stopped selling tickets of those international airlines which had cut back on commission from 7 per cent to 5 per cent forcing the airlines to withdraw the cut back.

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