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ABTA says its has strong case against BA
ABTA head of legal services Riccardo Nardi has told TravelMole that the association has a “lever-arch file full of evidence” that BA is abusing its dominant position.
He said that the information received from members clearly shows the importance of BA to most agents’ bottom line. For one agency, BA accounted for 30% of its total business. The evidence has been arranged in regional order and shows that agents in Scotland and the regions will be particularly hard hit by the changes to payments that BA looks set to implement next month (June 1). Mr Nardi said: “In Scotland there is a very magnified effect, but even in the south and London the impact is stronger than we were expecting.”
Mr Nardi argued that the new short haul payment of £2.50 does not even cover an agent’s costs, let alone enable them to make a profit. He said: “The terms of the IATA agency agreement mean staff have got to have minimum qualifications and they have to invest in computer systems. All that costs money which is not reflected in the new figures.”
And he told TravelMole that the fact that no-frills carriers such as Ryanair do not pay agents at all is irrelevant. He said: “Ryanair doesn’t matter to agents – they maybe have to book clients on it five or six times a year so it’s not the end of the world. But the customer’s expectation is that they can book BA so many agents will have no choice but to sell their tickets.”
The ABTA board unanimously voted in favour of taking BA to the OFT over its planned changes to the Fresh Approach payment scheme at a meeting last week. BA argues that the proposed changes do not breach competition law.
See our previous stories:
02-May-2002: ABTA votes to take BA to OFT
25 Apr 2002: Time running out for BA as ABTA prepares to make OFT decision
16 Apr 2002: bmi says it won’t adjust commission until October
13 Feb 2002: BA cuts Fresh Approach payments
23 Jan 2002: BA and ABTA at loggerheads over Fresh Approach
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