As per a statement issued on the behalf of the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), Air India has restricted the sale of India-Canada tickets by travel agents in the country.
Travellers are being asked to book the tickets either on the Air India website or through their call centre.
“Overseas agents can sell India-Canada tickets. OTAs registered overseas can do it too. It’s only travel agents in India who are being discriminated against, and TAFI members are understandably incensed,” said a press statement.
“We had cheered the takeover of Air India by the Tatas and we had hoped that we would see the advent of more progressive and proactive policies but we’re extremely disappointed at the persistence of this retrograde anti-agent attitude.
“The entire industry has suffered colossal losses over the last two years and the announcement of resumption of scheduled commercial flights had brought some joy but this discriminatory step has come as a major dampener.”
The leading trade association highlighted that travel Agents are the extended marketing arm of an airline and to cut them off makes no sense.
TAFI has now appealed to Air India Chairman, N Chandrasekaran to address this anomaly and is awaiting a response.