International airlines Swissair and Sabena today made 5 000 air tickets available to a hundred top travel agents in a unique business-to-business on-line auction through bidorbuy.co.za, www.bidorbuy.co.za, the country`s leading Internet auction and electronic commerce web site. The new concept was introduced to South Africa`s leading travel agents at a high-tech function in Johannesburg today.
According to Izy Etkin of Swissair and Sabena this move is in line with the worldwide trend towards an "open skies" policy in the international air travel industry. Etkin said, "By using a business to business auction model to sell tickets in bulk, we are effectively introducing dynamic pricing to the air travel industry. This, we believe, will have a profound effect on the relationship between carriers and travel agents. On the one hand by making tickets available to the industry in bulk we are asking travel agents to share some of the risk by purchasing in advance. However this is offset by the fact that by bidding at auction, they can buy the tickets at a price they determine and therefore are entitled to sell them on to the public at prices they set. So, instead of being agents working on fixed small commission rates by taking advantage of this exciting opportunity travel agents will become vendors in their own right as the industry moves from being commission-based to a nett fare system."
Etkin also said, "We`ve gained experience in on-line auctions over the past six months by selling a limited number of seats direct to the public at bidorbuy.co.za, www.bidorbuy.co.za. This has been a very small scale and predicated on a business to consumer model. I`m really delighted that we are now able to utilise the on-line auction in a true business-to-business model. Instead of making these seats available directly to the public we have invited our 100 preferred travel partners in the country to be here with us today as we launch this remarkable initiative."
The tickets were sold in lots of 10 or more in a series of Snap auctions over a period several hours. At the launch there were a 100 PC`s all linked to the Internet. Each of the PC`s was allocated to a travel agent who used the machine to make on-line bids. Essentially today`s auction was a live rehearsal for future auctions where the travel agencies would bid from their own offices.
Bidorbuy.co.za South Africa`s CEO, Nitzan Tal said, "We are delighted to be able to facilitate this development in the travel industry. Swissair and Sabena have been highly successful with their ticket auctions direct to the public. However we believe that the introduction of the business-to-business auction model in the travel industry will have a profound effect on the way in which business is done in this sector in the medium and long term. I believe that the travel industry will quickly recognize the advantages of a dynamic pricing model and will embrace it as the benefits of this way of doing business become more and more apparent."
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