After several years of online agencies leading growth in air ticket sales, the last few months show a distinct decline for the online sector.
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In this month's travel agency channel segmentation report, the Airline Reporting Corporation reports that online travel agency transaction growth is down. Picking up the slack are the "Mega" agencies (Amex, Carlson, Hogg Robinson, BCD). Growth is also picking up for "other" (aka non-mega) offline agencies.
Overall air ticket sales by the 15,559 US agencies is down month over month by 5% as of the end of April, with domestic sales declining 6% and International sales declining 3% month over month.