New era dawns as BA ditches commissions

(28 April 2005)

It's the end of an era for UK travel agents this week when British Airways pays final commissions on trade bookings.

The carrier stops its 1% commission payments on Sunday and withdraws IATA ticketing authority from all individual agencies selling less than £50,000 worth of BA tickets every year.

Despite trade protests, BA said almost 100% of UK agents had now accepted the airline’s latest deal. A spokeswoman said BA sent official notification letters to 1,400 IATA-registered agencies in January, and has since received signed, returned copies from all but “a very small percentage”.

But ABTA chairman Ian Reynolds said the association will continue to monitor BA to ensure IATA agents are properly remunerated when the airline finally agrees its online booking fee, likely to be £1.