Singapore Airlines has reduced its commission structure for all tickets issued in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and eSwatini from 0,01% to zero.
The airline has advised that the change has been updated in the GDSs and will apply for any ticket issued after February 1.
Similar moves have been made by other airlines to reduce the cost of their agency distribution channel.
Ceo of Asata, Otto de Vries, said the move was in line with a general shift in the way airlines were working with agents, which was now more back-end incentive driven than front-end commission driven. He added that it was unlikely to have much impact on the market, as ticket sales were currently so low.
But, he said, the bottom line was that agents were unlikely to drive support to a particular airline when very little remuneration was involved.
