Travel agents body TAAI asks Lufthansa to recall surcharge move

The Travel Agents Association (TAAI), which is peeved with German national carrier Lufthansa's move to charge $18 extra for those tickets not booked through its website from September, on Tuesday demanded immediate recall of the decision and hold a meeting with travel agents.

"Lufthansa must immediately withdraw this announcement and hold a dialogue with the agency associations," TAAI acting President Sunil Kumar said in a statement.

When contacted, Kumar said the association members are meeting this week and has also sought an appointment with Lufthansa management here and said he expects a resolution to the problem.

"It is shocking that a leading airline that has been well promoted by the agency fraternity for several decades now, is resorting to unfair practices of taxing agencies for using a GDS to make a reservation to sell Lufthansa. This is highly objectionable and an extremely agency-unfriendly announcement.

"The response from our members is extremely adverse," the TAAI statement added.

It can be noted that earlier this week, the German national carrier said beginning September, it would charge an additional 16 euros, or about $18, on tickets outside its reservation network for booking flights, hotels and other travel needs.

Lufthansa claims it spends hundreds of millions of euro on agents and by imposing the 16 euro surcharge, it could make more money if it drives customers to book directly.

According to industry sources domestic airlines pay around $ 5-6 as global distribution system (GDS) charge on each ticket, which works out to be around Rs 600 crore a year for each of the airlines (air India and Jet) sold by travel agents and portals, while in Europe this is only 2 euros.