It’s the end of an era for UK travel agents this week when
British Airways pays final commissions on trade bookings.
The carrier stops its 1% commission payments on Sunday and
withdraws IATA ticketing authority from all individual agencies
selling less than £50,000 worth of BA tickets every
year.
Despite trade protests, BA said almost 100% of UK agents had now
accepted the airline’s latest deal. A spokeswoman said BA
sent official notification letters to 1,400 IATA-registered
agencies in January, and has since received signed, returned copies
from all but “a very small percentage”.
But ABTA chairman Ian Reynolds said the association will continue
to monitor BA to ensure IATA agents are properly remunerated when
the airline finally agrees its online booking fee, likely to be
£1.