Aviation

Emirates to keep agency commissions at seven percent

Call centre capacity to quadruple to 500

Bhisham Mansukhani - Mumbai

Nabil Sultan Senior Vice President Commercial Operations, West Asia and Indian Ocean region

Emirates Airlines is unequivocal about keeping agency commissions at seven per cent in recognition of the importance of the travel agents to their distribution. Reiterating this, Nabil Sultan, senior vice president, commercial operations, West Asia and Indian Ocean region, however said that travel agents needed to optimise their own costs and that GDS costs were running too high and needed to be checked. He also revealed that the airline's worldwide call centre operations, which were currently consolidated in Mumbai would be further ramped up to 500 from the present 100.

"GDS costs are rising all the time and these need to be brought into focus. Agents also need to optimise their costs, though we recognise the role they play, which is why we have kept commissions at seven per cent. With online sales not picking up as we hoped it would, we have to rely on the travel agents for distribution," stated Sultan. With regard to the airline's conspicuous Southern bias (15 of 57 overall flights are to Kerala), he commented, "South India is an emerging market. People around the world are talking about Kerala. The market is dictating more capacity into South India and therefore that is our emphasis for now. We brought in European tour operators to the region and have played an important role in developing medical tourism here. However, we would also want to look at flights into Ahmedabad, Pune and other satellite towns, as well as resort locations, like Goa. As of now, we are still to utlilise certain bilaterals but ideally, we would like to have most Indian cities in our network," commented Sultan.