THE deadline for the
implementation of Iata’s
new financial criteria
is just a month away, but
the majority of agents are
confident that they’re ready for
the change.
IATA’s area manager for
South Africa, Janaurieu D’Sa,
confirmed that following its
December 10 notification to
agents, many agents have
already met the criteria. Iata
is confident that most if not
all agents will be ready by
the deadline. “We have seen
no indication of agencies
not doing the necessary to
comply,” Janaurieu says.
TNW conducted a snap
survey among 15 agencies
with their own Iata licences,
12 of which said they were
ready for the looming deadline.
Both Mladen Lukic, gm of
Travel Counsellors South Africa
and Garth Wolff, ceo of eTravel
commented that their ITCs are
also ready. However, the heads
of travel consortiums agree
that smaller travel agencies
will need to rethink the way
in which their businesses
operate.
“Not all agents have taken
heed of the new financial
criteria,” says md of Harvey
World Travel Southern Africa,
Marco Cristofoli. While HWT
has made it its mandate to
educate its members about
the new requirements, Marco
says only around five or six out
of 90 of the group’s members
have responded with queries
to HWT’s notifications about
the new criteria.
While the readiness of each
agency to implement the new
criteria will depend on the
makeup of each particular
business, those smaller
agencies with prolonged
account status’ are going to
struggle and will be forced to
seek out alternatives, says
Mladen.
“As a result some agencies
will need to remit twice
monthly or even four times a
month,” agrees David Pegg,
md of Sure Viva Travels.
Although, he says this is not
ideal as agents earn interest
off of that money.
Rod Rutter, coo of XL Travel,
believes the majority of agents
will opt for the DIP and pay the
R11 per ticket. However, he
says they would be wiser to
opt for the guarantee as this is
money they won’t “lose” and
that will earn them interest. He
adds that XL Travel has been
proactive in focusing on the
reduction of its cash sales in
order to reduce its guarantees
rather than opting for the DIP.
However, agencies that rely
on the “airlines’ money” are
mismanaging their businesses,
says Garth. With the DIP
acting as an additional cost,
he believes that many smaller
agents will ultimately become
ITCs. He says eTravel has
seen an increase in interest
from potential ITCs as a direct
result of the Iata bonding and
tough economic conditions.
“Very small businesses are
going to struggle to support
continuous cash flow,” he
says.
