Travel agents protest at commission bombshell

By CHRIS DANIELS

Axing commission payments to travel agents for domestic air travel has earned Air New Zealand the ire of agents across the Asia Pacific region.

Delegates at a recent Singapore meeting of Asia Pacific travel agents were told of the Air New Zealand decision, then told to pass on the news to their respective members.

The president of the New Zealand Travel Agents Association, James Langton, said delegates from the 15 countries present passed a resolution that "questioned their support of an airline that was not supporting its agency distribution in New Zealand".

Langton said that although there was no talk of boycott, the region's travel agents were all being told the story of what Air New Zealand was doing.

"They've gone away and said 'why should we support them? Why would we support them on their international travel?'

"The travel industry needs and wants a strong Air New Zealand. They are fantastic for this country, we need them, but they must be prepared to pay for their products to be distributed,"said Langton.

He said the local association was going to meet Air New Zealand executives next week, to "sit down and have the dialogue with them that we should have had in the beginning".

Talk of a new incentive scheme for agents should have been part of discussions long ago, he said.

"Why do they attack the agents that give them 80 per cent of their business?"

New Zealand marketing manager of the Flight Centre chain, David Burns, said there had been no change in the company's position.

It said last week that it would take its business with Air New Zealand, worth $205 million a year, to other carriers unless commission payments were restored.

Air New Zealand has said that exact details of the new method of paying agents for booking travel have yet to be finalised. But changes to the commission structure were seen as inevitable.