Colombia: Agencies with less income from airlines and more overtime payments

The reduction of working hours from 47 to 46 per week and which will continue to be reduced until reaching 42 hours, affects the income of Travel agencies and is added to the high reduction of income by airlines, as they seek to sell directly, as stated by a specialized source in the tourism sector. REPORTUR.co.

“The agencies’ margin is very low, airlines are giving fewer and fewer incentives, the GDS no longer exists and investments have to be made in NDC. Now there are more overtime hours to pay, which is better for the employee, but not for the company, in other words, less income and more expenses, making the business more complicated,” the source explained to this newspaper.

He added that “the airlines’ objective is contrary to that of the agencies, since they want to sell everything directly and not have any intermediaries. But the small agencies will have to consolidate with the big ones to receive anything or they will disappear,” said the same source.

The source also indicated that before the agency business was “99% but that has dropped a lot. That is why there is more focus on selling hotels and packages,” he commented.

In the case of airlines, the working hours of the crews are governed by Civil Aeronautics. “RAC 4.17, maximum 6 takeoffs and 6 landings per day, 90 hours per week maximum. 9 hours per day maximum for an operation with two pilots,” the aeronautical authority informed REPORTUR.co.

Law 2101 of 2021 modified Article 161 of the Substantive Labor Code, which reduces the working day. Originally, the maximum working day was 48 hours per week, which was reduced to 47 last year and on July 15, it was reduced by another hour to 46. In this way, it will continue to be reduced until reaching 42 hours per week.

As reported by REPORTUR.cothe FAEVYT Air Transport Commission expressed its rejection of the new increase in fees for issuing tickets via GDS established by Copa Airlines and Avianca since April. (Agents reject Avianca and Copa for increasing the surcharge to GDS).

“Once again we are faced with a policy of abusing a dominant position whose ultimate goal is to focus everything on direct sales and which clearly goes against Travel agencies, harming our work, as well as the end customer, punishing their options when comparing and purchasing a trip,” they detailed at the time in a statement.