Airlines delay move to scrap travel agent commissions by a month

Mumbai: The country's top three airlines, merged State-owned entity, Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, have deferred their decision to do away with the commission paid to travel agents for sale of airline tickets by a month - from October to November. As part of their cost-cutting measures domestic carriers decided on the move in June this year.

''They made a presentation to us and therefore we have agreed to defer cutting the commission by a month,'' said a NACIL spokesperson.

In June this year, the airlines informed agents of their decision to do away with the system of paying commission and had settled on 1 October as the date for changing the six-decade-old system.

At a joint meeting in July travel agent associations had asked airlines to postpone their move till 1 May 2009 and, also, to subsequently impose a transaction fee on tickets which will make up for the lost commission.

Airlines promised to respond before 1 August 2008.

The move by airlines to scrap the commission is set to impact the businesses of 8,000 travel agents across the country and may even lead to some of them completely shutting shop.