BRITISH Airways is to invest £100m in new Internet ventures over the next two years including an on-line travel agency.
The agency will be owned jointly by 10 major airlines including BA, Lufthansa, Iberia, Swissair, SAS and Alitalia. It is due to be launched within the next few weeks.
The move is being seen by agents as another step to undermine BA’s relationship with the trade following its controversial decision to axe commission payments.
ABTA aviation committee chairman Sandy McPherson said: “It’s another way of alienating agents.”
However, BA head of UK and Ireland sales Tiffany Hall said the move was inevitable.
“If we didn’t do it, someone else would,” said Hall.
She added that the new site would not receive preferential deals over other agents.
The on-line agency is part of a strategy by the airline to increase its on-line revenue from £45m a year currently to £700m within the next two years and reduce distribution costs.
Currently, fewer than 2% of the airline’s tickets are sold on-line, but the carrier wants that to increase to 50% by the end of 2003.
BA will also set up a new unit, called eCommerce, to develop products and services for the Internet. It will be fully operational for the new financial year starting on April 5.