Travel Agents Refuse To Levy Transaction Fee

Travel Agents Refuse To Levy Transaction FeeAir passengers have to pay the transaction fees of Rs 350-10,000 per ticket for national and international flights from November 1. Indian domestic carriers such as Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines have decided to levy this fee through travel agents. Air carriers are, at present, giving 5 percent commissions to agents which would be replaced by transaction fee from today onward.

However, almost all travel agents have refused to levy transaction fee on travelers. The general secretary of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), Ajay Prakash said that the decision is very injudicious and it would put extra burden on the traveler by making air travel more expensive.

Airlines are also proposing to scrap the transaction fee after December 31, 2009 in case the customers purchase ticket directly from office or online. The step would affect the business of agents as customer would prefer direct or online purchase of air tickets.

The online ticket business would also be affected by the decision as there would be difference in the fares between the online travel websites and the airline websites.

The CEO of Yatra, Dhruv Shringi said that the travel business is already facing tough time following slowdown of 15-17 percent in the business. Post festival season would prove very hard for travel industry.

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