Airfare will come down as the government has decided to make the airliners pay agent commission on total fare including fuel surcharge, aviation ministry sources said.
Unlike the global practice, the airlines local agents are being paid 7% by the airlines company on ticket price excluding fuel surcharge. The agents usually give whole commission benefit to their customers. If the commission is counted on total fare, the customers will get larger benefit, which means they will need pay a reduced price.
The airlines stopped paying commission on whole fair when the fuel price soared few years ago. Although the fuel price has now dropped largely, the airlines companies to continue avoiding the commission on fuel surcharge.
Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon said they were trying to solve the problem.
“Of course we will take care of our local agents and ensure the travellers are benefited,” he told Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
The minister said they along with Civil Aviation Authority sent letters to the foreign carriers having business in Bangladesh on November 16 last year about the matter. “But the foreign companies are not willing to comply with the directives mentioned in the letters.”
Kazi Wahidul Alam, an aviation industry expert, said the country loses a huge amounts of money every year in the current practice of fixing fare.
“There is an over $500m business in the local market. But the current practice is incurring big losses to the agents,” he said, who is also Editor of monthly Monitor.
But Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh (ATAB) said sometimes foreign carriers fix fare price at only 20% and fuel surcharge at 80% which also causes a huge loss to the country.
“The country loses not less than Tk1,000 crore through this process. Everybody should take it seriously,” SN Manzur Murshed (Mahbub), president of the ATAB, said.
He said foreign carriers are not allowed to do this in their own counties.
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