Pakistan International Airlines pays two travel agents £400,000

  • November 22, 2013, 2:13 pm
  • World News
  • 161 Views

LONDON, Nov 20 (INP): Two UK travel agents are to receive £400,000 after winning a court case against Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) over commission payments.

Following the ruling in the High Court in London the airline must recompense the agents for missing commission on tickets sold since 2010.

Ticket agent Riaz Hussain Syed was one of the two agents who decided to launch the action after being told by the airline he should charge the passengers the extra money instead of the airline, the BBC has reported.

He added: “If the price printed on the ticket is £500 and I ask the passenger for £35 more, do you think he will pay me? PIA wanted us to charge them the money.”

PIA spokesperson Mashood Tajwar said: “We lost this case for fuel surcharges, but we settled out of court with some of them.”

However, Syed said this is not the case and added many of the 39 members of the Association of Pakistan Travel Agents (APTA) had wanted to go to court but were concerned over costs.

He added: “We had no choice. We wanted to settle out of court, but they told us to get a judgment order if we wanted to be paid what we thought we should be paid.”

Eleven APTA members have settled out of court with the airline, including Kaleem Majid of Royal Travel in Manchester.

Syed said more than £20 million was owed to his members and that they would go back to the Royal Courts of Justice to get it.

The airline has had financial difficulties. Last year, it had pre-tax losses of about eight billion rupees (£45m).

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