What a way to start the New Year, with British Midland considering plans to cut commission rates.
The airlines have been looking at British Airways to see whether it had lost business as a result of cutting back commission to agents.
I do believe there has been considerable switch selling away from BA and I am sure that its revenue has been affected. But how does anyone find out?
Loss of revenue can be attributed to many factors and why tell the truth if you do not have to? So, other airlines, believing that BA has got away with it, are now following the its lead. Why pay 9% when you can get away with less?
Of course British Midland has moved too quickly. It takes much longer than a year to change trading patterns. But no airline really wants to wait because the whole issue has been overtaken by the increasing impact of the low-cost airlines on the market.
The scheduled carriers are having to compete with the likes of EasyJet, so they are desperate to save every penny they can. Life is not easy for anyone at the moment, so it is the people at the bottom of the pile – the travel agent – getting kicked.
With the advent of technologically efficient ways of selling airline seats direct to the public, it is obvious that many in the airline world feel there is little risk in offending or hurting the travel agent.
In fact, it’s good to be an airline. You don’t have to put up bonds in case you go out of business. You can separate all your airport taxes from the ticket value and, therefore, only pay an already reduced commission on a lower figure.
You can issue contracts to tour operators which are unfair in the extreme. You can take months to reply to complaints and no consumer body seems to bat an eyelid.
You can lose the luggage of your passengers with impunity and let either they or the operator sort out the mess. The list is really endless and the authorities just do not care.
As I have said before, the regulators have preferred to shift the responsibility for making sure airlines and accommodation providers perform onto tour operators.
Our own associations, instead of complaining about this, have joined in and set time limits that we must adhere to when dealing with problems created by suppliers.
Sunvil has several large claims we have had to pay off, which have not even been acknowledged by the airlines in question, even though the incidents took place early in 1998.
We don’t even have the power to deduct compensation from what we pay to the airlines. If we could, it would actually concentrate their minds on these issues.
As organisations grow, so their service will deteriorate.
When a company has so much power, it can buy governments and behave how it likes. Good service is born of pride and a sense of insecurity.
By abandoning support for small and medium-sized enterprises both our own Government and the European Commission are doing a great disservice to the people they represent.
Time will show me to be right but by then it will be too late. And on this note of optimism – a trait for which I am well known – I wish you all a happy New Year.
“Good service is born of pride and a sense of insecurity”