New Delhi: Air travel agents from across the country have demanded the government to direct airlines, including state-owned Air India, to reinstate commission paid to them, which has been abolished on the ‘pretext’ of incurring loses.

In a meeting, attended by several airline unions like TAAI, TAFI, IAAI, IATO and ADTOI here, the travel agents have also demanded the Parliament to pass a law for commission, so that it could not be changed by the air carriers for their monetary benefits.

The associations submitted a mass petition in this regard to the Petition Committees of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

The fraternity has been fighting for the reinstatement of travel commission after it was abolished by airlines, including Air India, Jet Airways, Kingfisher from 1 November this year.

“Abolition of the commission is going to spell doom for thousands of travel agencies in the country and thus will affect over a million people working in travel and related sectors,” IAAI President Biji Eapen said.

Earlier, the travel agents were being paid commission for selling air tickets by the airlines. The commission, however, had been reduced from 9% to 5% over a period of time.

Eapen said that a delegation of travel agents would meet Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to put forward their demand of atleast five per cent commission in the air fares.