Emirates urged to declare 0% plan

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Emirates Airlines has been urged to let the industry know when it plans to go to 0%.

Senior management from American Express Travel Services and Qatar Airways have called for Emirates Airline to be more open about its long-term plans to move to zero percent commission.

American Express network development manager Roland Bunge called for openness, and asked the UAE-based carrier to reveal whether or not it had plans to go to zero commission in 2008, so that travel agents could begin to prepare themselves for a service fee-based environment.

"Life is about moving forward. We have to put a deadline in place - if nothing gets done [agents] won't start to get themselves prepared for the inevitable. It is only when someone starts bashing on your door that you do something about it," he said.

"Nothing will change in this market unless Emirates makes a change."

The plea came during an event hosted by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) entitled ‘Managing business travel in the Middle East - the rocky road ahead', held at the Radisson SAS Hotel Dubai Deira Creek last month. Emirates sales manager Tatiana Korshunova defended the airline's decision to continue to pay agents commission, but gave no hint as to when the airline planned to make the transition to a commission fee environment: "We want to support the travel agents and we believe they are not yet ready for a 0% environment," she said.

"We want them to get the sufficient income that they deserve so they can invest in training, staff and IT technology so that they are ready for 0% when it does come here. We want to support out travel agencies so we won't take it away from them and let them struggle to survive."

But Qatar Airways senior manager global sales and distribution Ian Heywood said that agencies were not using commission-based profit to invest in their companies; they were passing it back to their clients.

Unless the airline sets a date for the industry to work towards, travel agents will never be encouraged to prepare themselves for the inevitable, he added.

"You need to start planning and preparing travel agents for a 0% commission environment. A transit period is very important," he said.

"The reason this room is not packed with smaller travel agencies is that they do not believe that we will at some stage be converting into a 0% environment in this market. The question is when does Emirates think the market will be ready and what are they doing to prepare it?"

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