Travelport's rollout of its Agility Product Suite, coupled with a revision of commercial terms that will essentially require travel agents to pay for terminals, is causing rumblings among agents in Asia.

The move, made in a space where agents in Asia are used to incentives and essentially free terminals by the GDSes, is being interpreted as either brave or foolhardy. It is understood that monthly fees per terminal range from US$10 to US$35, depending on markets.

Travel agents in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan are understood to have received notification. Travelport's national partners in other markets have been given grace period to implement and it is understood that most are reluctant to do so, given the consequences to their business.

"It's a question of who blinks first," said one industry insider who declined to be named. "And how much market share is Travelport prepared to lose?"

The programme, first rolled out in the US, has already met resistance and earlier this month, in the face of agent dissent, said it would make "limited changes" to the Agility package, according to this report in Tnooz.

Travelport's decision to start charging for Agility is based on its belief that it now has a superior product. The move sees the rollout of its Travelport Smartpoint App and included in the package is a host of other features such as the Rooms and More accommodation tool which it says is popular among agents in Singapore and Hong Kong.

At the time of the launch, chief operating officer Kurt Ekert (left) was quoted in Tnooz as saying the move to introduce the new platform is "evolutionary not revolutionary".

He said it would improve the agent desktop experience alongside Travelport being able to service agents in a more efficient way through further upgrades and access to technology.

"We want to help customers with what they want, how they want it, and where they want it," he said. "It also gives customers a common platform with access to premium products."

Full story:

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