The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the cartel representing airlines, relaxed its rules over agent accreditation and agency debit memos (ADMs) at its Passenger Agency Conference in Singapore.
Under the major change, agents in Europe will only have register in one country to be able to operate in all countries in Europe.
There will also be a relaxation of the rule which required agents to install a safe of a set size in their premises to keep airline tickets secure.
IATA's requirement that qualified staff must always be present when issuing an airline ticket or quoting a price has also been scrapped.
Rules governing ADMs have also been eased so an agent who disputes an airline demand will no longer be put “into default” while the matter is settled.
Finally IATA plans to set up a new body, the Passenger Agency Global Joint Council will have both airline and agency representatives from around the world. This new body will be a forum for discussion both before and after Passenger Agency Conferences.
The rule changes have to be approved by the individual European government but are expected t some into force on January 1, 2006.
The new Global joint Council also has to be approved by government but IATA is hoping to call its first meeting in September.
Mr Michael Feldman, IATA's director passenger, said the changes were “very positive” for agents. “Almost everything for the travel agent community was approved,” he said.
Isabelle Leroy, legal adviser to the Guild of European Business Travel Agents which has been among the bodies campaigning for changes, said they looked “rather good” but would not make a full comment on them until she had seen the full IATA text next month.
Mr Feldman said the changes to agency programme were designed to streamline and simplify and make it easier for agents both to get and retain accreditation.
On having qualified agents present for the issuing of tickets, he said IATA would “no longer be specifying what the qualification is.”
On security, Mr Feldman said that as IATA was moving towards paperless travel, it was “not reasonable to expect investment” on such equipment.
On ADMS, he said that changes gave more clarity to the dealings between individual airlines and agents.
“It is not possible for IATA to interfere in ADMs but we can adopt general principles and a model industry procedure for ADMs.
“We have re-confirmed the agent's ability to dispute an ADM and if he does then under no circumstances can an agent be put into default.
“But we have no rules over the size of an ADM. That is something IATA can not deal with,” he said.