Indian agents target foreign airlines over commission
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Indian travel agents have threatened to boycott international airlines from January for non-receipt of commission, The Economic Times reported. It said they took the decision after a meeting with Singapore Airlines last week failed to arrive at any solution.
Rajii Rai, President of Travel Agents’ Association of India (TAAI) told ET; “We will take action against foreign carriers if they don’t bring back the previous practice of paying 5% commission to us.”
International carriers such as Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Air France, United Airlines, Continental, KLM and JAL had reportedly stopped paying 5% commission to agents since November.
Since then, the agents have been demanding re-introduction of the old rates. The agents also want Air India to follow the other domestic carriers which started paying 3% commission.
“We have met the Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel. We understand that the government will ask Air India to give commission to travel agents,” Rai was quoted saying.
Industry sources are, however, not certain on whether the minister would back the agents on the issue. The minister had recently said that the payment of commission is a commercial matter between travel agencies and airlines.
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