The high costs burden on the airlines for paying the distribution systems and the agents have led to airlines bringing out offers for the passengers to promote direct channel ticketing, reports the Business Standard.
Vistara Airlines offers five extra kilos of luggage to all travellers who book tickets directly from the airline and not from travel agents such as Goibibo, MakeMyTrip, among others.
Even IndiGo offers an in-flight meal at half the price, if the traveller books a seat through the airline's app.
Selling tickets via agents comes with a high cost burden because the airline depends on global distribution systems to provide price and schedule details to flyers. The distribution systems enable the transaction between airlines and agents. Hence, these systems collect a fee from the airlines and then share it with the agents.
Recently, even Jet Airways decided to scrap the basic one percent commission to travel agents, following the footsteps of global airlines to cut costs.
Apart from this, the airlines will also get to know their passengers and this will, in turn, help the airline build customer loyalty, among others, which will help them generate revenue and goodwill.
“There is a direct benefit for the airline and the passenger if the ticket is booked directly with us. Also, we get to reduce our distribution cost, whereas the flyer gets access to our ancillary products,” a senior Vistara executive told the paper.
Airline officials also expressed how the agents do not share the passenger details with the airlines.
“Sometimes flyers vent their anger saying they were not informed of a flight delay. Actually, the airline doesn’t even have his/her mobile number as agents refuse to share passenger data with us,” a SpiceJet official told the paper. He reasoned it is because the agents are "anxious" that the airlines will promote themselves to the flyers.
The airlines also hope the Aadhaar entry will help them boost their ticketing share. According to the proposal, flyers can use Aadhaar number to book their air ticket and this will be shared with the airlines. The biometric details will then be shared with the airport operator to hasten check-in process, with the help of the Aadhaar entry. According to officials, if passenger details are available to the airline, it would help in changing the current scenario of the travel industry.
As compared to the global airlines who hold a 90 percent share in booking tickets directly, airlines of India have only a 25 percent share.
An IndiGo official said even the maximum number of corporate bookings happen via agents. He said if a passenger were to go for a business trip, the tickets are booked through travel agents and a similar trend is followed in group bookings too. IndiGo sells only around 18 percent of its tickets through its channels and it has made itself present in all the available channels.
On the other hand, travel agents have dismissed the airlines' claims where competing with the distribution system is concerned. “I don’t think a Vistara or an IndiGo is competition for us. In fact, we are allowing them more access to the market. An airline has the job of flying its planes, maintain the fleet. If our distribution channels are stronger, it ultimately helps the airlines,” said MakeMy Trip Founder Deep Kalra.
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