Jetstar has highlighted the travel trade as an increasingly important distribution channel, as the airline attempts to devise ways for them to work together.
Chief executive David Hall told Travel Today that while conducting the majority of its business via the Internet enables Jetstar to keep its costs low, as it has grown in scale it has started using other distribution channels and is increasingly looking to build relationships with agents.
"More and more the trade is important to us. We should never be dismissive of it," he said.
Groups are among the markets that the airline is targeting that are more easily served by the trade than the Internet, so it is drawing up new ways of working together to "leverage some mutual value out of both sides".
"No commissions as such, but wholesale fares are being done, ease of booking is being done – the team are looking at some ways that will make it easier and more accessible for the trade to book and that’s what it’s all about for us," he said.
Hall confirmed the proportion of its business coming through the trade is growing, although he declined to divulge figures for commercial reasons.
