Airline to pay agents 3% commission

After Jet Airways, Kingfisher too has agreed to pay a commission of 3 per cent per ticket to travel agents. Kingfisher will also pay a 3 per cent commission on the total ticket fare, which includes the basic fare and the fuel surcharge. Earlier, airlines paid a commission of 5 per cent on the basic fare and excluded fuel surcharge from it. Fuel surcharge constitutes up to 70 per cent of the total fare.

In absolute terms, the amount paid as commission will be 30-50 per cent higher than what was paid earlier.

"We have decided to pay a fee that will be 3 per cent of the ticket price. However, the airline industry thinks that negotiations would have been a much better way to get their demands fulfilled rather than going for boycotting," said Siva Ramachandran, vice-president, global sales, Kingfisher.