AGENTS have reacted with fury to British Airways’ decision to scrap commission on January 1 2001 and introduce fees which start at just £5.
The country’s dominant airline has been accused of favouring business and larger agencies, which can supplement the payments with their own fees to clients, over small independents which are reliant on commissions.
The new fees, expected to be between £5 and £15 per sector, dependent on ticket value, will be considerably less than agents’ current remuneration, according to ABTA Aviation Committee chairman Sandy MacPherson.
“BA has gone after business agents at the expense of leisure agents and that is disappointing,” he said.
Travel Weekly revealed last year that BA would axe commissions (Travel Weekly November 15).
Agents also hit out at BA for introducing a £25 fine from April if they issue a ticket on departure instead of an electronic ticket.
In addition, BA’s popular Interim Agency Bonus will be scrapped from April to leave agents with just 7% commission until January 1 and new sales and marketing agreements. The IAB pays agents up to 10% commission for completing BA training and was seen by agents as a vital way of making up for lost pay due to the cut in basic commission to 7% from 9%.
Uncertainty remains over exactly what the airline will pay from April 1 and January 1.
Outraged Andy Kosky, manager of Avant Garde Travel in central London, said he supported BA through the IAB scheme and was outraged it was being taken away.
“It is scandalous and a kick in the teeth for agents. It’s a preposterous decision for agents which have supported BA during the interim scheme,” he said.
BA sells 85% of its tickets through agents and Paul Dayson, manager of Spa Travel Worldchoice in Wetherby, said:”What they have done is despicable. Switch-selling is our policy, and that of every other independent I know.”
BA head of UK and Ireland sales Tiffany Hall said:”We want a scheme which shows what we are paying agents for. Previous commission payments were complex and inefficient.”
Other airlines have declined to follow BA’s lead.
n News and reaction, pages 4, 5 and back;Comment and Analysis, page 8; and Columnists, page 13
“BA will promote this as another brilliant idea, but they will come back to us cap in hand desperate for our business, as Thomson has done, after we start switch-selling.”
Paul Dayson, manager, Spa Travel Worldchoice, Wetherby, West Yorkshire
“Why try to appease the City bypenalising agents? In the long term, this will not save BA money, its claim that agents are expensive is rubbish.”
Di Baker, owner, Wellington Travel, Aldershot
“The current commission structure can pay agents 100 times more for work that is in no way worth more than 100 times more.”
Tiffany Hall, head of UK and Ireland sales,
British Airways
“It is as if BA is saying we don’t need you anymore. Someone has got this very wrong.”
Andy Kosky, manager, Avant Garde Travel, central London
“Agents will get considerably less than what they get now. We can not goalong with this, we will resist it and must resist it.”
Sandy MacPherson, aviation committee chairman, ABTA