Agents stand by for a nice little earner

Flightline international by Lindsey McNeill

Agents stand by for a nice little earner

Specialist to pay commission on last-minute flights

Seat-only specialist Flightline International is giving agents the chance to earn commission from clients who turn up at airports in the hope of finding charter flights at the very last minute.

From tomorrow, the company will offer a facility on its website that will allow travel agents to register the details of clients who are prepared to travel on standby.

If these registered customers are then lucky enough to find a seat on a flight when they arrive at the airport, the agents will receive commission from Flightline.

The specialist will pay agents an average of 7% commission on all flights, although rates may vary according to volume.

This is comparable to the commission earned on scheduled airline tickets bought direct from airlines.

Brian Freeman, who set up Flightline five years ago, said: “Tour operators often release seats to us at the last minute, so if we have people waiting at the airport we can usually find them a flight.

“If an agent can’t find a flight for a customer, they can advise them to travel on standby.

“If we have all their necessary details we will be able to put them on a flight as soon as a seat becomes available.”

Flightline has direct links to the databases of several of the major tour operators and charter airlines, which enables it to use a combination of carriers for a single trip.

This means it can sell open-jaw tickets, which allow customers to fly into one airport and out of another, and it can also sell tickets valid for any duration including same-day returns.

Unlike most other seat-only operators, Flightline does not have specific allocations on any charter airlines.

However, Freeman claimed that the company’s ability to search the databases of all the large operators including Airtours, JMC and Thomson, meant it never had difficulty finding seats.

Waiting game: the Flight International website lets agents register standby passengers