QF confirms agent talks

QANTAS has promised to “keep the agency community updated” as it conducts ongoing discussions with resellers over their remuneration, after CEO Alan Joyce on Fri confirmed that the carrier was renegotiating its arrangements with third party distributors (TD 23 Oct).

Qantas Executive Manager of Global Sales & Distribution, Igor Kwiatkowski, told Travel Daily the carrier was looking for ongoing cost savings and efficiencies across the entire business.

“As part of this, we’re reviewing our supplier agreements and our distribution costs to ensure Qantas remains competitive as the market recovers,” he said.

“We’ve been having constructive conversations with our agency partners about these changes for a number of months now,” Kwiatkowski said.

Possible areas for consideration include BSP base commission, changes to back-end head office volume deals and the timing of incentive payments to agents, according to industry sources.

Kwiatkowski said “one thing that won’t change is our commitment to our agency partners and mutual customers ... we’ re continuing to progress our NDC program and will be launching a number of new features over the coming months, all designed to better support the industry in selling and servicing their bookings with Qantas”.

MEANWHILE Joyce’s speech at the Qantas AGM also confirmed expectations that QF flights to the US and Europe are unlikely to resume until there is a widely available COVID-19 vaccine.

In the meantime the carrier continues to assess options for routes to lower-risk destinations such as the Pacific, South Korea and Southeast Asia.