Role Of GSAs – Myth And Reality

Express Travel & Tourism finds out about the travails of the General Sales Agent

General Sales Agents (GSAs) play a very vital role in the growth and development of a country’s civil aviation. He is the backbone of the industry – the main-stay needed for the industry to flourish.

Before discussing the GSA’s role, we must understand who the GSA is. The term GSA (with which everyone in the tourism and civil industries is familiar), stands for the General Sales Agent.

GSA is appointed by the airlines, shipping companies or hotel chains to market or sell their services/products in a particular area allotted to him.

Before venturing in any new market, instead of opening their own offices, airlines appoint a GSA. This is the most cost effective method for them. The markets are new to them and they need an expert to guide them on, hence the GSA.

When they appoint a GSA, it is his responsibility to rent an office of international standards and to pay towards its maintenance, have efficient and skilled staff and pay their salaries, and also pay local and other taxes. In short, the entire operation of the airline is operated by the GSA.

Because of his understanding of the market it is his responsibility to evolve market strategies to promote sales and achieve targets set by the airlines.

It promotes sales through IATA agents, non-IATA agents, corporate houses and by other marketing and commercial activities either evolved by itself and also under the guidance of the
airline.

It is the GSA who is also responsible for any liability arising out of bouncing of cheques or non-payment of dues by the agents. It is his responsibility to keep the customers as well all the IATA agents, his sub-dealers, happy by his friendly policies.

The GSA’s Additional Responsibilities

The GSA is expected to not only sell the tickets of the airlines but also to help them sort out any problems or difficulties with the officials of the civil aviation ministry, Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Airport Authority of India or the government at the highest level using his personal influence and contacts.

GSA is thus supposed to be a man of many parts with mastery in several skills besides marketing. He has to be a good PR person. He should be a good go-getter with access to the top government functionaries at any given period of time. He should also have good contacts in RBI, DGCA and Department Of Civil Aviation and Tourism.

To be an effective GSA, he has to develop such qualities as credibility, tact, friendliness, sociability, patience and tolerance. He has to be a winner with positive attitude and outlook.

GSA’s vulnerability

As apparent from the above, airlines have all to gain. Whenever there is any crisis they just fold up and go and leave the mess for the GSA to sort out, like staff, office, other related financial matters etc. It is the GSA who crumbles under the burden of any crisis such as 9/11.

Many GSAs have to face numerous challenges when IATA agents become bankrupt, either because of handling of their financial matters or because of reasons like the Iraq War and SARS, which followed in succession lately. Since the responsibility is that of the GSA to collect the payment from the IATA agents and remit to the airline, it has to make the payment out of its own funds.

Thus, in such a crisis, the risks and liabilities of GSAs make them more vulnerable than the airlines, which are generally supported by banks, financial institutions and in some cases even by governments. GSAs have obviously no such backing.

The life of the GSA is full of risks and challenges, more than that of the IATA travel agent. The GSA is normally sandwiched between the airline and the IATA agents. It still has to pay the airline for the payments held by IATA agents and is punished by the airline for the wrong tickets issued by IATA agents just because the IATA agent happens to be in the territory of the GSA and because the airline does not want to punish the agent through IATA bodies. This results in the agent going scot-free and the GSA having to pay to the airline all the monies owed by the agent to the airline.

There is absolutely no truth in the myth about the GSA having a cushy working environment and getting good easy money out of the companies that he represents. It is tough going, money-wise and work environment-wise. The airline thinks it can demand anything out of the GSA since he is the one responsible for the territory. Many a times the demands are unreasonable.

The airline can go into cost cutting to save money here and there but the demands on the GSA remain ever growing. The agents on the other hand try to exploit the situation as much as they can by not paying the monies and still put the blame on to the GSA. The GSA always loses out on the commitment of the airline to the agent for the extra commission which is not honoured by the airline as the agent then holds back the payment to be made to the GSA for the airline ticket which the airline takes from the GSA out of his own funds. The GSA finds itself forced to finance some of the sales of the airline.