Travel agencies in the city will remain closed on Tuesday as part of the country-wide protest against what they term as callous approach of airlines towards travel agents, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) has said. Travel agents are agitated over the decision of several domestic and international airlines to scrap the agents’ commission and transaction fee.
The decision of the airlines to move towards zero commission and more recently to do away with the transaction fee would put the survival of the travel agencies at stake, the association said.
The TAAI contended that airlines are unwilling to recognise that travel agents should be remunerated for having made extensive investment to support the growth of airlines for many decades. The travel agents have invested lakhs of rupees to sell tickets of domestic and foreign airlines. Over 3,000 IATA agencies with over a lakh of employees would be affected by the decision of the airlines, said M.S.Paramasivam, chairman, TAAI-South Tamil Nadu Chapter.
