LOT set to reduce commission paid to IATA agents

LOT airlines is going to face a difficult few months. From July 1, it reduced the commission paid to International Air Transport Association (IATA) agents, from 7% to 5%. For now, British Airways (BA) and Lufthansa are taking things slowly and are remunerating the agents as they have previously done. One does not have to be an economist to realize whose tickets the agents are likely to sell. After half a year of heated debate between LOT and IATA agents, during which LOT declared that it would reduce the commission by 4%, both sides came to an understanding. New commissions were to be implemented in April, not in July as is now the case, and were to be lowered, not by 4% as was the original intention, but by 5%. Other carriers on the market are to follow suit: Lufthansa is to lower the c ommission in August and BA sometime later. The period during which LOT pays the IATA agents, who sell 85% of their tickets in Poland, may turn out to be extremely unfavorable for the troubled domestic carrier. (Puls Biznesu, p. 5) A.C.