Indian agents strongly oppose Air India’s exclusive GDS agreement
India’s travel agent community is up in arms over the national carrier’s decision to use an exclusive GDS supplier.
The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) and Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) say it is a counter-productive move by Air India which will likely lead to a 40% drop in travel agency sales.
Air India recently announced it will use only Travelport as its exclusive distribution partner.
"Air India has sent shockwaves through travel trade in India. The response given by Air India is that this would save distribution costs. This is surprising since the airline wants to save in distribution costs but lose thousands in seat sales," said Sunil Kumar, president of TAAI.
Praveen Chug, president, TAFI said: "Air India has completely ignored the support they have been getting from the agency community. Many travel agencies have been selling a large share of Air India seats on the GDS with whom the airline has now disconnected its domestic inventory."
The organisations say many agents do not have Travelport access, a claim Air India disputes.
However former AI chairman and MD Rajiv Bansal and commercial director Pankaj Srivastava both opposed a move to a single distribution partner, fearing a drop off in agency sales, the Business Standard reported.
Air India claims using an exclusive GDS partner for domestic inventory will cut distribution costs by at least 40%.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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