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ABTA has lost its complaint to the Office of Fair Trading that British Airways is abusing its dominant position by reducing payments to agents.

The OFT has ruled that BA has not infringed the Competition Act 1998 by making low booking payments to travel agents.

BA reduced the payments from £6 to £2.50 for economy tickets and from £11 to £5 for premium tickets in June.

ABTA argued these lower payments do not allow agents to cover their costs and that BA is obliged, by virtue of an alleged dominant position, to pay a reasonable level of remuneration.

The OFT concluded that, even if BA was in a dominant position, the reduction in booking payments is not an issue.

ABTA also argued that if customers decided to charge customers a service fee, this would encourage them to book their tickets on-line at BA's website.

The OFT decided price differences between on-line and agency tickets is not abusive.

A statement from the OFT read: "Different means of selling tickets have different costs and the additional service provided by travel agents, such as searching for available routes and schedules, could feasibly be reflected in the price they charge."

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