ICON 2013, organised at The Retreat Hotel in Mumbai, was inaugurated by Biji Eapen, Chairman & CEO of SpeedWings Aviation Academy and National President, IAAI. Apart from him industry stalwarts including Naresh Rajkotia, Madhuram Travels, Chairman – ICON 2013; V L Jaghannathan, General Secretary, IAAI; S Saldanha, National Treasurer, IAAI; R K Maheshwari, former Joint Director General of Civil Aviation, Government of India; Subhash Goyal, Chairman – Stic Travel Group and President, IATO; E M Najeeb, Chairman and Managing Director, Air Travel Enterprises Group of Companies; Dr Parag Diwan, Vice Chancellor, University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, and officials from IATA attended the convention.
In his keynote speech Eapen stated that air travel is no more only for the affluent, it has become a frequent mode of transportation for the common man. “India holds the fourth largest domestic passenger volume and aims for the third position by 2020. Though the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is to administrate and control aircraft operations in India, it appears that the regulator is concentrating more on the aircraft operation and safety and other services, including functional activities, while its terms in ticket sales, cargo sales and ground services have been totally ignored, which results in total chaos in the industry,” he said, adding that travel agents are the extended arms of airlines and the tourism industry, and play a crucial role in generating revenue for the national exchequer.
The Convention delved into major challenges in the industry and how they could be converted into opportunities. Eapen believes that the non-payment of commission, impending weekly payment, disparity in fares, direct marketing by airlines, the new National Development Council policies, the stringent financial guarantee criteria, etc., are challenging the very existence and survival of ordinary agents in India. Since 2008, IAAI has been fighting for restoring agency commission, stated Eapen.
“Agency commission is the legitimate right for agents and transaction fee model is illegal. IAAI has put across their plea to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, DGCA, Kerala High Court and Supreme Court of India for justice on the commission issue. The Kerala High Court has stated that commission is the legitimate right for agents.” He further revealed, “Recently, the Supreme Court of India also noted that commission model is the right one and the transaction fee model, which is followed by zero commission airlines, is illegal. We are hoping to receive five per cent agency commission from airlines soon with these positive court orders.”
According to Jaghannathan, “We are pursuing the DGCA and the airlines to reinstate our commission to five per cent, including those who had reduced it to one per cent like Air India and Jet Airways. We are hopeful that they will see reason and act upon it. After all, 70 -80 per cent of the airline business is still conducted by the agents. Our case for the reinstatement of agency commissions is still with the Kerala High Court. If all travel trade associations join hands with the interest of the entire agent community, we will get back the commission model.”
During the convention Eapen also expressed interest in Agency Promotion Joint Council (APJC) – India and believes that IAAI also deserves a membership in APJC-India as the Association holds a large membership base of IATA agents in India. “The national carrier Air India and Jet Airways together have declared that IAAI represents 30 per cent of the travel agents in India. They had also declared that TAAI and TAFI represent 70 per cent of agents, which means that both TAAI and TAFI represent 35 per cent each or share the number of their agents within that limit. Then, why is IAAI, representing 30 per cent of the industry, still deliberately kept out of APJC-India?” he enquired.
The second day of the Convention witnessed a series of business sessions, which highlighted issues such as ‘Emerging Challenges and Opportunities in Aviation Industry’, ‘ATF – Fuel Fluctuations and Aircraft Ticket Pricing’, ‘Role of Travel Agents in the Emerging Scenario’, and ‘ASHA – Workshop on Adversities’.
