‘We won’t promote Singapore’

Exactly after a month of boycotting Singapore Airlines, travel agents in India have warned Singapore Tourism Board (STB) of not promoting Singapore as a destination, if the airline does not give in to their demands.

Six associations of travel agents met with STB in Mumbai on Thursday asking them to make Singapore Airlines “understand” the repercussions of not giving them 3% commission for the last three months. “It’s been a month since we have stopped selling tickets for Singapore Airlines. This is definitely affecting the Singapore brand which is promoted by STB,” said Pradeep Lulla, president of Travel Agents Federation of India.

The boycott followed after the airline resorted to zero commission. Earlier, domestic airlines like Kingfisher, Jet Airways and Air India had resorted to zero commission regime, but had to revert their decision after the agents boycotted them.

There are 20 lakh travel agents in India and 85% airline bookings are done through them.