BRITISH Airways has taken a giant step towards severing ties
with agents by axeing commission and dropping its least-productive
IATA retailers.
The long-expected move to 0% was announced on Tuesday as part of
a double whammy to the trade.
The carrier said IATA agents doing less than £50,000 of
business for it over a 12-month period would have their ticketing
authority withdrawn – a move that will hit 377 agents at the
end of this month.
The airline claimed to have lost thousands of pounds in agency
failures over the last year and was taking the step to “limit its
exposure”.
In addition, these non-ticketing agents will no longer be able
to see BA fares on their global distribution
system and will be forced to book the carrier through BA’s
on-line Fare Trade Explorer system. Agents claimed the move was
BA’s response to switch-selling and claimed the flag carrier
was abusing its dominant position.
BA head of consumer and agency sales Ian Heywood said agents had
until February 18 to accept or reject BA’s commission
cut.