BA: 'Not our job to support agents' - TravelMole


BA: ‘Not our job to support agents’

Tuesday, 01 Oct, 2003 0

Agents do not get paid a commission by no-frills carriers, so they have no reason to expect if from BA, according to the airline’s head of corporate sales Ian Heywood.

During a meeting with journalists on Tuesday, Mr Heywood told TravelMole: “The no-frills airlines don’t pay commission – why do you expect me to pay you a commission when I am competing with them? You have to realise we are in the same market.”

British Airways director of sales worldwide, Dale Moss (pictured) was also at the meeting. He said: “Over time perhaps the trade will realise that we are just responding to market forces – we don’t want to engage them as the enemy.

“But, it has never been our responsibility to support agents. Everyone has to step up and provide value to the customer.”

He added: “Agents were originally working on behalf of the airlines, but now they are agents on behalf of the customer. They [agents] are accountable for their own preservation and they must find ways of getting the customer to stop seeing them as the cost in the middle.”

Mr Moss added: “There has never been a better time for good agents and never a worse time for mediocre agents.”

BA’s head of UK and Ireland marketing, Jayne O’Brien also attended the meeting. She said that agents should start charging fees and said agents that had done so were telling BA that they were doing better financially.

Mr Heywood emphasised that agents were still an important distribution channel for the airline. A spokeswoman told TravelMole that 80% of BA sales are still distributed by the trade. The carrier is meeting with ABTA this week to talk about how it can work with smaller independent agents since dropping commission to 1%.

Mr Moss added: “If we were making £700 million a year then I would certainly be paying commission.”

More from the BA meeting tommorrow

Read our previous stories:
26-Sept-2003 Swiss to cut agency commission
23-Sep-2003 Swiss to join OneWorld
19-Sept-2003 Comment by Jeremy Skidmore: Wise up over commission cuts
12-Sept-2003 Commission cuts come thick and fast
08-Sept-2003 Iberia drops to 1%
04-Sept-2003 Newspaper claims BA boycott is imminent
29-Aug-2003 BA to ditch Fresh Approach



 



Most Read

Mark Jaronski of Explore Georgia on FIFA World Cup 2026

Connecting Small Businesses to Global Tourism Markets: Nate Huff of Tourism Exchange

North Carolina’s Resilience: Wit Tuttell on Recovery and Tourism

Kittipong Prapattong’s Plan for Thailand’s Tourism Growth: Taxes, Visas, and Campaigns

James Jin: Didatravel’s Journey from China to Global Reach and the Impact of AI on Travel

Darien Schaefer on Pensacola’s Evolution: From Small Town to Global Destination

Florida Tourism’s Next Frontier: Dana Young on Expanding Beyond the Classics

Patrick Harrison on Tampa Bay Tourism’s Resilience and Marketing Strategy

Bubba O’Keefe on Clarksdale’s Vibrant Music Scene

Commemorating Elvis and Embracing Tupelo’s Culture with Jennie Bradford Curlee

Craig Ray and the Expansion of the Blues Trail

Presenting Mississippi’s Cultural Trails with Katie Coats
TRAINING & COMPETITION

Our emails to you has bounced travelmole.com Or You can change your email from your profile Setting Section

Your region selection will be saved in your cookie for future visits. Please enable your cookie for TravelMole.com so this dialog box will not come up again.

Price Based Country test mode enabled for testing United States (US). You should do tests on private browsing mode. Browse in private with Firefox, Chrome and Safari