Chinese airlines put the squeeze on ticketing commissions

The commissions received by agents selling domestic tickets for Air China Ltd., China Southern Airlines Co. and China Eastern Airlines Corp. have been reduced by all three airlines, reports Bloomberg.

Bloomberg referred to a July 5 report from China Business News that cited two unidentified ticketing agents.

The report claimed that China Eastern, and its subsidiary Shanghai Airlines, cut commissions from July 3 to three percent for flights departing Beijing, while China Southern dropped its commission rate by about two percentage points on an undisclosed date.

China Southern's final commission rate was unreported, according to Bloomberg, as were the original commission rates for both China Southern and China Eastern.

Air China reportedly cut commissions to three percent for flights leaving Shanghai, representing a drop of about two percentage points, but the date for this was not revealed.