Air Canada’s New Commission Structure

Chris Ryall, www.travelmarketreport.com
Air Canada last month announced it would be changing the commission structure on its fares. Duncan Bureau, its vice president of global sales, explained the reasoning behind that development in a talk with Travel Market Report.

As of April 1 the airline eliminated paying 7% commission on its Tango fares (its lowest fares) but said it will pay 4% for its Flex and more expensive fares.  

“We made a huge investment in rolling out a time-of-ticketing commission of 7% and what we found is that investment didn’t generate anywhere near the type of returns we needed,” Bureau said.

“We spent a significant amount and we only received a third of that investment in return,” he added. “The economics just didn’t work – it wasn’t motivating the agencies or our distribution partner to do anything.” FULL STORY