Tour group slams PAL for poaching into their trade

First posted 20:22:07 (Mla time) July 28, 2010
Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE PHILIPPINE Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) has slammed Philippine Airlines (PAL) for offering discounted fares packaged with cheap hotel rooms and tours in popular domestic and international destinations—services that the group claims to be its stock in trade.

In a letter to PAL chief commercial group adviser Richard Miller, the group said the airline’s various packages, which had been widely advertised in recent weeks, would eat into travel agents’ business.
“The association’s membership most respectfully submit ... that the foregoing business practice … observed by PAL is not entirely in consonance with the concepts of fair play, fair competition and equity,” PTAA president Paz Alberto said in the letter.

PTAA said PAL’s promos have hurt the travel industry’s sales since passengers are now going straight to the airline.

PAL earlier this year announced that it would offer a series of promotional packages to encourage more people to travel amid improving economic prospects.

The promos were also offered to mark PAL’s 70th anniversary next year.
But in its letter, PTAA said the deals PAL offered to its clients did not conform to the long-standing understanding between the airline and its partner travel agents that there should be no unfair competition between them.

“Each and every business practice must carefully take into consideration ... the economic and beneficial welfare of the airlines concerned, as well as the inherent rights and existing business interests of the country’s travel agencies,” the group said.

PTAA had already asked PAL to pull out the advertised promotions. At the same time, the group said PAL should extend “appropriate measures of relief” to PTAA members, who were allegedly forced to deal with unequal business opportunities and practices.

“We are likewise more than willing to sit down with you and undergo dialogues that could definitely assist us and provide adequate solutions and remedies to each and every party’s concerns or demands,” the group said in its letter to PAL.

Last week, PAL announced that it had trimmed losses for its fiscal year 2009 to 2010 to $14.3 million from $297.8 million the year before. Paolo G. Montecillo