ChinaTravelNews, Mark Guo – ChinaTravelNews has found that 321 ticketing agencies in China have lost their IATA accreditation in the five months between February and June this year.
ChinaTravelNews compiled IATA’s public information on June 13 and found that 136 voluntarily gave up their accreditation for passenger agency during that period, and 95 lost the accreditation for not submitting the 2016 annual fees in time. The remainder 90 were disqualified for not submitting the “Financial Guarantee Unlimited” letter.
Without an IATA agency accreditation, a ticketing agency will only be able to apply to airline companies for selling B2B tickets.
An informed source told ChinaTravelNews that some of the disqualified agencies were no longer in air ticketing before their accreditation expired, while others may be operating under a new license name.
China’s ticketing agents are being subjected to new ticketing remuneration policy by eight major Chinese carriers that replace commission and overrides for domestic flights with fixed agent fees. An industry observer questions whether the fee is enough to cover an agent’s cost for issuing a ticket. (Translated by Jerry)
