AN AGREEMENT between the GBTA and the airlines on a standard commission payment may not be put into place for another two years, GBTA chairman Don Lunn told members.
Lunn and Portman Travel managing director Graham Flack have been instrumental in setting up a working party, called New Millennium Working Group to discuss the subject of airlines’ commissions.
The group consists of five travel agents from around the world, including Lunn, and five airlines who are acting as representatives for all members of the International Air Transport Association.
The first meeting took place last month at IATA’s head office in Switzerland, and the next is scheduled for September in London. The aim is to set a common rate of commission payments which will be accepted as standard throughout the trade.
But at a closed meeting at the GBTA conference Lunn told delegates that implementation of the common standard could take two years. One delegate who did not want to be named told Travel Weekly: “Two years is far too long. A lot of the smaller agencies are really suffering. There is a concern that some of them may no longer be in existence in two years time.”