BRITISH Airways has postponed its controversial plan to scrap travel agents' commission for booking flights.

The new scheme, which pays agents a flat fee for each booking rather than the previous seven per cent commission, has been put back three months and will now commence on April 1 next year.

The abolition of agents' commission will have far reaching effects for both leisure passengers and corporate clients, it is claimed.

Travel agents say they will now be much worse off as the new fees are generally much lower than the commissions previously paid.

And many are now preparing to introduce transaction fees to help cover the costs of the booking process.

Mr Paul Sutton, Business Development Manager for St Andrews Travel, Bolton, said: "Ryanair have already gone down this route and this led us to stop selling their tickets.

"However, with British Airways this is not a realistic option and as far as transaction fees are concerned, we already implement these when booking low-cost carriers such as Easyjet.

"However, It is not something that we are comfortable with."