Channel Chat

The Official Voice Of ETAA

ETAA gains strength both with airlines and IATA agents at TAFI

Acknowledges the role of Express TravelWorld for giving it a platform

Reema Sisodia - Mumbai

Our previous issue carried a story with the headline, Enterprising Travel Agents Association (ETAA) requests airlines to take it seriously. We are glad to report in this story that the request has now become a reality. It all happened at the international convention of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) 2006, when for the first time the president of ETAA was invited by TAFI to speak at the open forum at the convention in Singapore. The open forum has senior officials from the airline industry representing their respective airlines namely Air India, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa, to name a few, who openly acknowledged the role of the travel agents including the non-IATA agents, represented by ETAA.

Expressing his sense of achievement was Karl Dantas, president ETAA, "It is great to witness this positive change, which came out openly at the TAFI 2006 convention in Singapore. The airlines accepted the importance of the travel agents in the business and did agree that it is essential to sit together and discuss issues. The travel agents' fraternity including the non-IATA agents should be taken into confidence by the airlines, especially to discuss changes that the airline intend to implement. All the agents association namely TAFI, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI) and ETAA spoke in the same voice and the airlines did pay heed to it."

The four associations had also come together in the past to solve the airline issue of reduction in the commission structure. Dantas further added that, "There seems to be a sense of continuity and solidarity which is extremely encouraging."

He further acknowledged the role of Express TravelWorld (formerly Express Travel & Tourism) for being the only publication for giving ETAA a dedicated page to voice their opinion. In the words of Dantas, "I take this opportunity to thank Express TravelWorld who gave ETAA a platform to express itself by dedicating a section called 'Channel Chat'- the official voice of ETAA. This a very unique endeavour and according to me, for ETAA it all began here. The publication has been instrumental in bringing associations together and have been a catalyst for change."

At the recently concluded TAFI convention, there was also a discussion on the issue of travel industry's designators service code) TIDS between IATA, ETAA and TAFI and what is the way forward that took place at the open forum. (Look out for an exclusive update on this in our next issue).