ACTA's Advocacy in Action – July to September Report
IATA/Airlines
A significant segment of our Advocacy has centered on IATA related initiatives and/or issues. While not all members are IATA appointed agencies, many agencies still make air bookings through other distribution channels and consequently, it is essential that ACTA is at the meeting table with IATA’s members, the airlines, ensuring that the issues of the agency community are heard and recognized.
| Issue | ACTA's Goal | Progress July – September 2019 |
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| Agency Debit Memos |
Reduce ADM's |
- ACTA is pleased to learn that after more than a year of lobbying, IATA’s Global Net Remit (NR5), a special filing system for contracts, is now available in all IATA BSP countries. The NR5 solution enables the management of the entire lifecycle of incentives (commission control) from contract filing, calculation and payment, to reporting and analytics, with no extra effort from Travel Agents. With Commission Calculation being the #1 cause of debit memos in Canada, and Canada experiencing some of the highest debit memos in the world, we are strongly encouraging all Canadian airlines to take advantage of this program so our Members can begin to see improvements in the whole ADM process.
- In close cooperation, ACTA and IATA are hosting the first regional ADM Workshop in Canada. This falls under the success of the global ADM Group, of which ACTA is a participant. This one-day workshop on October 1st in Toronto, is designed for those directly involved in the back-end travel agency accounting operations, will review ADM data specifically related to Canada, talk about main pain points and how the industry can address them together.
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| NewGen ISS |
Chice of Accreditation models for ACTA Members, without disruptions |
- In response to the challenges and confusion Members still experience with the various IATA accreditation models and IATA’s TIDS program, ACTA developed clear steps to assist members with understanding the processes and the differences between the programs. The template is currently being reviewed by IATA and is expected to be shared with Members in early October.
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| Passenger Agency Programme Review Taskforce |
Engage in honest, open dialogue to agree on a Simplified Passenger Agency Programme governance based on better and stronger collaboration |
- The newly formed Taskforce, consisting of members of the World Travel Agents Association Alliance (WTAAA), which Canada is an active member and IATA and their airline members, is making progress particularly on the two major issues of the Travel Agency Commissioner (TAC) Program and Local Financial Criteria (LFC) programs.
- ACTA is an active participant on the global committee of Travel Agency associations and IATA, and met in early September to review the status of all the project plans and established milestones for the Taskforce. The Travel Agency association members were apprised of new IATA initiatives being developed. Our response to IATA was to share the big picture plans of all the current and proposed initiatives being developed, in order to understand the benefits to the Travel Agency network before any further work is done on the new projects. Plans will be shared at another global committee meeting in October.
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| Canadian APPR Regulations and Request to IATA to Create a URL Hub for all Airlines’ Conditions of Carriage - NEW |
Make the process of complying with the new Regulations easier for agencies. |
- ACTA is lobbying IATA to help Travel Agencies comply with meeting the new Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR), which came into effect July 15, 2019. Within the new APPR, it states that the terms and conditions of carriage must be included on all documents including the passenger’s itinerary. The challenge is that the conditions of carriage described for each situation noted in the APPR can vary by carrier and perhaps even by route. ACTA proposed to IATA an easier solution to the problem: IATA could establish and maintain a “URL hub” where the conditions of carriage of all BSP Canada participants can be accessed. IATA created a similar hub for the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) initiative in Europe.
- ACTA was advised, that IATA has acknowledged our request and is addressing it internally with the Legal Advisory Committee.
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Provincial Regulators
| Issue/Province | ACTA's Goal | Progress July – September 2019 |
|---|
| Ontario |
Reduce financial burden on Members, improve efficiency and lobby for consumer-pay model |
- Industry Associations (ACTA and CATO) are aligned with the message: The burden to fund the Compensation Fund is on Ontario Travel Agencies and Tour Operators and this financial burden is unfair, costly and unsustainable.
- ACTA’s lobby team met with the Ontario government throughout the summer to discuss the regulatory and financial burden of the Ontario Travel Industry Compensation Fund, as well as the long overdue relief of the burdens of the Travel Industry Act (TIA). ACTA reinforced the message that Ontario travel businesses have already contributed millions of dollars into the compensation fund, and it is sitting at $23+ million. Ontario Travel businesses have done their part and should no longer be required to contribute into the Compensation Fund. Going forward the Compensation Fund should be funded by the CONSUMER, who the beneficiary of the Fund.
- Our lobbying efforts are gaining traction and the new Minister of Government and Consumer Services has reached out to ACTA directly to hear our concerns and recommended solutions to reduce the regulatory burden on Ontario Travel Agencies. The meeting with the Minister will take place in October.
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Federal Government Relations
| Issue | ACTA's Goal | Progress July – September 2019 |
|---|
| Air Passenger Bill of Rights |
Balanced approach across Canada |
- Phase I of the new Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR) took effect July 15, 2019. ACTA was contacted for comment by media immediately following the implementation date to speak on behalf of our Members, and implications to air passengers.
- ACTA has advised Members on their responsibilities under the new APPR through advisories and the ACTAVision Newsletter, which are all posted on the ACTA website. A summary of Guidance Material was shared providing key points of interest and possible questions travel agencies may receive from their customers.
- ACTA will continue to keep Members updated as new information becomes available from the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), air carriers and GDSs.
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Insurance
| Issue | ACTA's Goal | Progress July – September 2019 |
|---|
| Alberta Insurance |
Reduce barriers for IC’s selling insurance in Alberta |
- Independent agents of a host agency continue to experience challenges with some members having their insurance license being held in a “holding pattern”, while the Alberta Insurance Council (AIC) requests more information. More details on the three areas where AIC are seeing non-compliance are identified on the ACTA website http://acta.ca/news- releases/aic1122.
- Progress stalled due to a change of government in Alberta however, ACTA and members of the ACTA Alberta Insurance Sub-Committee were successful in meeting with the newly formed majority government in September to bring this issue to their attention. The meeting was extremely positive as reported in the last ACTAVision newsletter: https://www.acta.ca/news-releases/mla0926. ACTA is staying close to this file and will be following up with the Alberta government to discuss next steps in removing the regulatory obstacles that our members face.
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