Airlines have made it obvious that long term, they want agents out of the picture Airlines have made it obvious that long term, they want agents out of the picture

We’ve all known for some time that airlines worldwide would quite happily do away with travel agents tomorrow.

Even though IATA figures reveal that around 75% of all airline tickets sold globally are through travel agents, airlines would much rather customers came to them direct and booked online.

To be fair, they’ve made no secret of this fact given that travel agent airline commissions are diminishing rapidly, even in the Middle East where many clients still prefer a face-to-face service to a computer screen.

However, the worst is yet to come.

My suspicions were aroused when this week, I contacted several airline heads in the Middle East regarding their participation in next week’s Arabian Travel Market.

The show, which takes place in Dubai from May 5-8, provides an ideal opportunity for travel product and services suppliers to meet one of their most important distribution channels – the travel trade.

And surely, this year, above all others, should be the one when you take this bull by the horns and make a real effort to engage every sales opportunity open to you?

You’d think so, yet four airline big wigs told me they would be out of the country during ATM – either on holiday or duty travel.

Duty travel I can just about understand, but to take a vacation during the biggest trade show of the year and prior to what is usually busiest three months for travel during an unprecedented recession?

What message does this give to the travel trade?

But agents beware, it’s about to get a whole lot worse.

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In the US – the country where 0% commission was first conceived – there is talk of airlines actually charging travel agents to sell their tickets.

If this directive is implemented – and it surely will when the economy picks up and the airlines are flying high again – it’s only a matter of time before this trend will reach the Middle East.

It took about a decade for the 0% trend to hit this region, but I don’t think it will take half as long for the airlines to start charging agents in this region to sell their tickets.

The message to travel agents is clear: when it comes down to it, airlines really don’t value your business and the sooner you come around to this way of thinking, the better placed you’ll be to think of a contingency plan.

But don’t worry, as the saying goes; what goes around comes around…