Business travel agents book less tickets annually and spend more in the process according to …
Service fees now account for more than 50% of a business travel agency’s revenue according to a survey.
The results of the study, commissioned by Amadeus, reveal agents receive 52.5% of earnings from service fees, 27.6% from commission and 19.9% from volume bonuses.
The survey also revealed that the process of selling an airline or rail ticket cost business travel agencies an average of £32.60 compared to an average of £23.10 for a consolidator per ticket.
In addition, full-time staff from a consolidator sell an average of 1,410 tickets each annually compared to 1,172 per full time employee per year within a business travel agency.
Amadeus ran the study across eight UK business travel agencies to improve its understanding of the day-to-day costs of running an agency and demonstrate how its technology could add value.
The GDS ran a further study to test how long it took agents from 11 agencies to make a booking compared with its three main competitors.
The study, which involved 46 agents, found business travel agents could book flights, reserve seats and provide information 66% faster on Amadeus.
For leisure agents the figure was 56%.
