Air ticket sales still below pre-crisis level

Prague, Oct 30 (CTK) - Revenues from sales of air tickets in the Czech Republic grew by about 6 percent year-on-year to almost Kc7.7bn in the first nine months of this year, but the figure still lags behind the pre-crisis period, Josef Trejbal, director of the Asiana company, has told CTK.

With the exception of September, sales in individual months of the year are higher in comparison with last year, Trejbal said.

The leader of the market is Student Agency, followed by Asiana.

There are 149 air tickets sellers on the Czech market at present, said Roman Orlik of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Agencies account for about three quarters of the overall air ticket market. Air tickets are also sold directly by air carriers. In addition, IATA's statistics do not include charter flights sold by travel agencies.

Ranking of air tickets sellers in terms of sales in Jan-Sept 2012:

Ranking Firm Market share in pct
1. STUDENT AGENCY 16.12
2. ASIANA 13.82
3. ORBIX 7.03
4. AMERICAN EXPRES 5.84
5. CEDOK 5.36
6. HOGG ROBINSON 4.66
7. BCD TRAVEL 4.49
8. CARLSON WAGONLI 3.51
9. THOMAS COOK 3.45
10. PELICANTRAVEL 2.67

Ranking of air ticket sellers by number of air tickets sold in Jan-Sept 2012:

Ranking Firm Market share in pct
1. STUDENT AGENCY 18.75
2. ASIANA 14.96
3. ORBIX 7.32
4. CEDOK 4.92
5. HOGG ROBINSON 4.54
6. BCD TRAVEL 4.45
7. AMERICAN EXPRES 4.19
8. CARLSON WAGONLI 3.26
9. PELICANTRAVEL 3.25
10. THOMAS COOK 3.17

Source: IATA