The travel agents? commission issue is taking an ugly turn as Singapore Airlines now faces the ire of agents across the country, protesting to restore the 5% commission paid to them by the airline.

For the last 53 days, most travel agents have been boycotting the sale of tickets for Singapore Airlines (SQ), the national carrier, on the mandate of agent associations. However, agencies that continue to sell SQ are receiving show-cause notices from their member associations.

The names include some of the largest travel companies in India?American Express, Uniglobe Travel, Carlson Wagonlit Travel and FCm Travel Solutions. FCm Travel, which is one of the largest corporate travel agency in the country with Rs 1,200 crore revenue in the last fiscal has been suspended from the membership of TAFI (Travel Agent Federation of India) and could see a possible expulsion if it does not buckle in.

When contacted by FE, both TAAI (Travel Agents Association of India) and TAFI confirmed to have issued show-cause notices to agencies which are violating the collective call of agents. ?So far, we have suspended FCm Travel and have issued around five show-cause notices,? said TAFI president Pradeep Lulla. ?We will boycott detractors both socially and in business and turn them into pariahs who have no place in the agent community,? read a combined statement to all agencies from the associations.

Sometime back, associations launched similar protests against domestic players. However, these agencies have refused to be a party to the boycott against SQ as many of their global clients have contracts with the airline and term the show-cause notices as cartelisation. ?There is a fear of our clients filing a suit for not booking them on SQ. This boycott has also been vetoed by the board of our parent company,? said FCm Travel Solutions, India and Middle East, managing director Rahul Nath.

Nath is now planning to file a suit in the Delhi High Court for forcing agencies to stop selling tickets on SQ and also for defamation of FCm. ?We plan to take strong against as associations can?t bully agents,? said Nath. Carlson Wagonlit Travel CEO Praveen Gandhi refused to confirm if their agency has also received a notice. ?We are an US-based MNC, governed by anti-trust laws and many of our global clients have contracts with airlines. Boycotting any specific airline tantamounts to cartelisation, so one has to look into the regulatory framework, he said. Carlson had Rs 1,500 crore of revenues from its Indian operations last year.

Losing a membership of an association means that agents can?t get passports and visas issued on behalf of their clients, leading to a major loss of business. ?We will also communicate to International Air Transport Association that the association will not hold any kind of guarantee for the agent in the future,? said Lulla.

While 13 international airlines including British Airlines, Lufthansa, KLM, Air France have stopped paying commission to Indian agents since November, Lulla said only Singapore Airlines is being singled out to ?set an example as this is a fight for our survival,? he said. The associations have also been organising protests against the 13 foreign airlines who have declared zero commission and have witnessed the participation of politicians like Congress MLA K Babu; Congress former minister Dominic Presentation; BJP state general-secretary AN Radhakrishnan; CPM MP Sebastian Paul among others.

Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines has withdrawn some of their flights from Indian cities and the Singapore Tourism Board has also cancelled their road shows scheduled for next week in some metros. However, Singapore Tourism Board, area director, North & East India, Kenneth Lim said the cancellation of the road shows is due to internal reasons and not in the wake of the protests.

Travel agents had earlier carried similar protests against domestic players, which had decided to scrap the 5% commission, as a norm in most countries of the world. However, Jet, Kingfisher and Air India later buckled in under the pressure and agreed to pay 3% commission to agents.