TAAI holds joint discussion with airlines

Aiming to collectively work with airlines, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) recently organised an interactive meeting with various airline representatives in Delhi.

The joint discussion saw in attendance representatives from a number of major aviation players including Air India, Lufthansa, Emirates, Etihad, Malaysian Airlines, Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, Oman Air, Air Cananda, Jet Airways. Also present on the panel were representatives from IATA and the GDSs.

The interaction saw TAAI and its members putting up issues like web parity, credit card acceptance, service tax, unethical practices by OTAs etc. in front of the aviation fraternity. Marzban Antia, Vice President, TAAI, said, “This was the inaugural meeting of TAAI with the airlines. After this we will have independent meetings with all of them.” Jay Bhatia, Honorary Treasurer, TAAI, added, “We collated points from our members across the country. Also, we had the airline council heads or the chapter chairmen from all the 20 regions present for this meeting. We are going to do this on chapter level as well, where all the regional heads of the airlines will be meeting the regional TAAI associates and take it forward.”

Speaking on how the airlines responded on the concerns addressed to them, Antia, said, “On accepting travel agent credit cards, we already have a few airlines showing positive signs.” Bhatia added, “The airlines were very happy that we’ve discussed something positive. We did not hit out at any airline. We were not trying to make a standardisation, but we are trying to make things easy and accessible to everybody. With a big panel in presence, even if we have 50 per cent of airlines work on our suggestions, or give us some alternative to work for the benefit of both sides, it will be a win-win situation.”

However, he praised Air India and Jet Airways for adhering to their requests. “Air India and Jet Airways have spoken to us and implemented TAAI’s initiatives and suggestions on a war footing. If more airlines do it, it’d be a welcome move.”

Talking about other initiatives, Bhatia said, “We are doing a similar thing with tourism boards, which will soon come up. We will be conducting two different sessions with international and state tourism boards respectively. We will also do a session on MICE. Even MOT will be working in tandem with TAAI for this and put up suggestions to increase inbound tourism, MICE and outbound tourism.”