GUILD WELCOMES AIRLINE COMPETITION DEADLINE

Europe's competition commissioners have given the world's major airlines just four months to come up with regulatory changes which could bring down the cost of travel.

The ultimatum has been warmly welcomed by Britain's Guild of Business Travel Agents (GBTA), which has campaigned long and hard against what it sees as restrictive airline ticketing practices.

“This dispute has been rumbling on for years,” says GBTA chief executive Philip Carlisle, “and while we have made some progress, there are a number of issues which are a long way from being resolved.  The competition commissioners have instilled a much-needed sense of urgency into the proceedings.”

The row between agents and airlines came to a head in October 2002 when the Guild of European Business Travel Agents – co-founded by the GBTA – and leisure travel agency organisation ECTAA filed a formal complaint against the International Air Transport Association and its member airlines.

The European Commission, to whom the complaint was made, upheld the agents' concerns and “invited” the airlines to open negotiations.  Two years on, the competition commissioners have now “invited” the airlines to resolve outstanding differences by mid-February next year.

“Through IATA, the airlines decide which agents are allowed to sell their tickets, where they can sell them, and at what price,” Carlisle explains.  “There are different rules for different countries, and the whole system has become both cumbersome and costly.

As international travel has become more commonplace, consumers are increasingly unhappy with the many anomalies that have evolved over the years.  As agents for the travellers, rather than for the suppliers, we have been campaigning vigorously on their behalf for fundamental changes to airline business practices.

“At long last, it looks as though we are getting somewhere.”

Most of the agents' grievances stem from the way travel and the travel industry have developed.  Multinational companies have driven the globalisation of travel, while airlines – most of which started life as purely national “flag-carriers” – have by and large remained one-country enterprises.

Trade barriers are disappearing fast, and e-commerce has dramatically accelerated the process.  The sheer pace of political and technological change has left many airlines standing.

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For more information: Vanessa Aves/Keira Garrigan, Brighter Group, Tel: 020 7603 2168

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