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Flight consolidator bids to increase travel agent sales

Flight consolidator Major Travel is hoping to increase sales by up to 20% by working with more travel agents.


Development manager Bill Samuels said Major Travel has commercial deals with about 1,000 travel agents, including TTA Worldchoice, The Co-operative Travel and Hays Travel.


He hopes to sign up as many as 300 additional travel agencies to work with the consolidator, and increasing the proportion of sales they account for from 70% to 80% by the end of the year.


Major Travel currently handles between 50,000 and 60,000 customers a year.


Much of the growth will be driven through a series of roadshows in the autumn. Samuels added the relaunch within the next five months of the consolidator’s agent website, which will offer ancillary product bookings for hotels, transfers and excursions, will also prove key.


He said: “We were very much sitting on our laurels and were taking the business for granted. Now we want to get the message across that we’re still here and we’re agent friendly.


“It won’t happen overnight, and the core business is still very much as it stands.


“Once we’ve got the new website up and running, we will still do the airline sales, but we will offer hotels, cars and all the other services that agents need when they’re booking their customers.”


Samuels said the consolidator will be offering ATOL protection on bookings where it is required, and will continue to offer agents high-street vouchers on all bookings.

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