Bangkok Airways is threatening legal action against the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) to recoup 55 million baht (US$1.6m) allegedly defrauded from the global airline body’s payment clearing house.
According to the Bankok Post, the airline said IATA’s global system for collecting payments from air ticket sales by travel agents on the behalf of airlines has failed.
The airline was made to shoulder the loss purportedly caused by defaults of certain travel agents in Thailand and a curious case of fraud involving the trade body’s Bangkok office.
Bangkok Airways and Thai Airways International were the hardest hit by the fraud, with bills of 55 million and 150 million baht, respectively.
The sums form part of 550 million baht in payments due from certain agents in Thailand, from January 2005 to August 2009, that were not received by IATA’s Bangkok clearinghouse.
A total of 84 airlines operating through Thailand were affected by irregularities at IATA’s Bangkok branch discovered last August, after which a Thai employee of IATA suspected of the crime was found dead under circumstances still being investigated by Thai police.
Bangkok Airways is the first airline known to be filing a suit against IATA’s billing system, known as BSP (billing and settlement plan), though the association maintains it is effective with a successful collection rate of 99.97 percent.
The move came as an IATA delegation held a special meeting in Bangkok on Friday with managers of affected airlines to deal with the issue.
Source: Bangkok Post
