Is a ticketing-only agency viable ?

External Since: Mar 15, 2004 Posts: 1

Trying to reconcile the glut of agencies selling cheap flights (as evidenced
in the Travel sections of the Sunday broadsheets) with the supposed global
downturn in the airline industry, terror threats, direct sales on the web,
etc.; is running a travel agency selling just flights still a viable
business ?
What sort of margins do these guys take ?
What can they pay their staff (who must remain unendingly optimistic and
chirpy) ?

External Since: Jun 27, 2003 Posts: 75

most companies are trying to capitalize on the higher margin products like
air plus, hotel plus, hotels, holidays, cruises, tours, car hire, et al

leaves room for the "do one thing - do it well" sort

margins? anywhere from 4 GBP per ticket sold up to 9 percent or so depending
upon contracts you are able to negotiate and how competitive you want to
remain

if you have a few million that you don't need right away, you could become a
consolidator - just buy a hundred thousand tickets each month from the
airlines and resell them for whatever margin you can get - I will buy always
works better than I can sell - and you don't really need to buy a hundred
thousand - you could specialize by destination or by airline

nonetheless - do keep in mind that travel is the second most competitive
industry in the world - a close second to the sex industry

"Zippo" <zkat.spam.RemoveThis@blocker.europe.com> wrote in message
news:Dhr5c.223$PA5.63@newsfe1-win...
> Trying to reconcile the glut of agencies selling cheap flights (as
evidenced
> in the Travel sections of the Sunday broadsheets) with the supposed global
> downturn in the airline industry, terror threats, direct sales on the web,
> etc.; is running a travel agency selling just flights still a viable
> business ?
> What sort of margins do these guys take ?
> What can they pay their staff (who must remain unendingly optimistic and
> chirpy) ?
>
>