TAFI points AirIndia's Restrictive - Destructive Policies
Air India is a IATA signatory to the Billing and settlement system which allows the Airline to use the IATA Agents distribution network for making their system inventory sales for all their flights. While this helps Air India to get access to over 4000 Agents all over India and the Agents network all over the world without any difficulty.
Hence we find it very difficult to accept why Air India has restricted the Indian Travel Agent from selling inventory (seats) on select sectors like Rome/Toronto and Vancouver. While at the same time allowing the Agents in Europe/Canada and the USA to sell seats on Air India from Rome, Toronto and Vancouver to India and vice versa, while blocking the Indian Agent in India, there seems to be a dichotomy of their policy and appears to be a misuse of their commercial authority. Air India facing challenges on the financial side should be looking at maximizing the seat factor and what better way than to increase seat sales via the easy access through the GDS channels using the IATA Agent network.
Air India has completely ignored the support that Indian Travel Agents have been offering to Air India on its weak sectors to help increase the seat factor percentage. The Trade has been patronizing the National Carrier but it seems it’s more a one-sided affair where the Travel Agent keeps supporting Air India and Air India officers misuse this support and take the Travel Agent for granted. A similar misuse of authority was applied by the commercial department when it was decided unilaterally in 2018 to move the sales through a selective Central Reservation System with the excuse of saving CRS charges, while simultaneously losing heavy revenue on unsold seats through the network which were not even considered but brushed aside. No wonder such arbitrarily decided policies have led to the losses in Air India.
Who is monitoring seats not sold on these sectors and what action is being initiated against the officers who are making wrong policy that hurts the Revenue Generation of Air India. This is a highly myopic attitude for a Commercial Airline, no wonder they face such losses. It is to be noted that International Carriers maximize the use of the Indian Travel Agent and fill their flights to a high level of seat factor percentage and add to their Revenue Generation through this distribution through all the GDS suppliers, they seemed to have understood the advantages of the Indian Travel Agent and to work closely with them.
The point to be made here is, are the MOCA and the CMD not aware that such policy changes are harming Air India not allowing the maximization of revenue. It's time they woke up to the realities of business.
