Major airlines stop selling airline tickets through travel agents in Greece

At Athens International airport the queues at ticket desks have grown prompted by action from some of the major airlines. Several have stopped sales via travel agents and tour operators over payment concerns. Turkish Airlines, Emirates and Qatar Airways are among the major carriers to have taken the action. The travel agents association claim ticket sales worth about 100 million euros a month have been affected. “These people (the travel agents) will be suffering. These people are losing business already to the recession and now they are losing business at the direct competition against the airlines,” explained George Paliaouras Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies Turkish Airlines, which has been flying to Greece for 68 years said the decision was “due to the unpredictability of the economic situation.” Many passengers were losing patience having to queue to buy tickets. “I think it’s a bad decision. They should be going on like normal as long as possib