Frontier Axes Agency Commissions

Falling in line with most competitors, Frontier Airlines today at 10:01 p.m. MDT will eliminate traditional commission payments on all tickets booked by agencies in the United States and Canada.

"We maintained our 5 percent commission structure with the hope that revenue generated by travel agents would increase enough to justify maintaining the commission program," said Sean Menke, Frontier vice president of marketing and planning. "Unfortunately, this has not been the case and, in fact, reservations attributable to travel agents are trending downward."

Fellow low-fare carrier JetBlue Airways, also citing a decrease in travel agency bookings as a percentage of its overall business, late last month similarly eliminated travel agency commissions. Both JetBlue and Frontier said they no longer could justify the expense after larger competitors cut their commission costs.

AirTran Airways, however, at press time had maintained its 5 percent, no-cap commission structure on bookings through both travel agents and its Web site.

Of the major carriers, only Southwest Airlines has continued paying agency commissions. It still offers 5 percent standard compensation payments with no cap.