Association of Special Fares Agents

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Association of Special Fares Agents

120
Formation 1986
Headquarters Sofia, Bulgaria
Membership 880
Official languages English
President Koos Jan Schouten
Staff 4
Website http://www.asfa.net/

The Association of Special Fares Agents, or ASFA, consists of Airline Consolidators, Bucket shops and Discount Travel Agents.

Contents

[edit] Aims

The main purpose of ASFA is the exchange of knowledge in regards to discounted airline tickets on the same route offered in different markets.

[edit] Founding

Founded as ITA (International Travel Association) in 1986 in Amsterdam by Ad Latjes, Koos Schouten, Folke von Knobloch, Rudy Weissmann, Daniel Staeger and other discount travel industry experts as a platform for discount travel specialists, consolidators and bucketshops from all over the world.

[edit] History

After disagreements between the founding members about territorial exclusivity at a meeting in Singapore in April 1987 was changed to ASFA. ASFA was to allow multiple agents per country, while ITA (http://www.ita-travel.com) continued as a small cartel.

Ad Latjes broke away from ASFA in 1989 to establish ETN (European Travel Network) (http://www.etn.nl).

The administrative office of ASFA moved in 1998 to Sofia, Bulgaria.

[edit] Activities

ASFA organises annual workshops around the world with the purpose of educating international travel agents in the art of creative ticketing and to exchange information about new trends in the airline ticketing industry. In addition ASFA enables it's membership of independent travel agents to create a worldwide network.

ASFA does not bond or license agents. ASFA members are registered and bonded according to the laws of the countries and states that they are operating in.

[edit] Membership

Currently ASFA has 917 members (17 October 2007).

[edit] External links

[edit] References