HONG KONG agents have finally reached a consensus with airlines over IATA’s plan to increase the remittance and reporting frequency of the Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) (TTG Asia e-Daily, December 14, 2010).

Originally scheduled to start from 2012, the new agreement, which will boost the BSP frequency from bi-weekly to weekly, will now be introduced in two phases from mid-2013 onwards.

Starting July 2013, the reporting frequency will be hiked from bi-weekly to weekly. Remittance will follow suit beginning January 2015.

The new measures were adopted by agent representatives to the Agency Programme Joint Council (APJC) in August, and were approved at the IATA Passenger Agency Conference in Geneva last month.

Newly elected APJC chairman, Tommy Tam, said: “It was the best result we could get…what we have negotiated is the ultimate deadline and agents have to prepare for it.”