Net fare vs published fare: the two-price world every Indian travel agent lives in
By Kabir Malhotra (Kabir Malhotra writes about how Indian travel buyers actually pay — UPI vs credit card vs forex card surcharges, reward-point math on the top travel credit cards, RBI tokenisation, EMI-on-flights and the small fees that compound across a year of bookings.) · Published · 10 min read
Net fares are the confidential airline prices that travel agents pay — lower than anything you will ever see on MakeMyTrip or the airline's own website. Published fares are what everyone else sees. Understanding the difference is the foundation of the agent economics model in India.
TL;DR — the short answer
Net fare is the confidential price an airline or consolidator charges a travel agent for a seat. Published fare (also called retail fare or public fare) is what the airline shows everyone on its website and on OTAs like MakeMyTrip or EaseMyTrip. The gap between the two — which agents call the margin or markup space — is where agent profit lives. Net fares are never advertised publicly. Agents agree contractually not to reveal them, and for most domestic Indian routes the net fare is typically a few hundred rupees below the lowest published bucket, though on international routes and group fares the spread can be far wider. You will not find a single universal figure, because airlines negotiate net rates individually with each agency based on volume, route priority, and commercial relationship.
Why do airlines bother with net fares at all?
Airlines want distribution. A seat that flies empty earns nothing. Before direct booking was dominant, airlines relied almost entirely on travel agents to fill cabins. Even now, corporate travel, group bookings, and markets where internet penetration is lower depend heavily on agent networks. Net fares are essentially the wholesale price airlines offer to incentivise agents to push their inventory.
It is the same logic as any other distribution channel — a publisher gives a retailer books at 40% off list price. The retailer sets the shelf price, the customer pays that, and the margin sits in between. Airlines do the same thing, but they layer in extra complexity: they set a 'floor' price (below which agents cannot sell, to prevent undercutting the airline's own direct channel) and sometimes a 'ceiling' (relevant in regulated markets, less so in India now). The published fare is the airline's own-channel price and also roughly the ceiling for agent selling prices in practice, because customers can always check the airline website.
For Indian agents, the net fare is usually accessed either through a GDS (Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo) on a specific fare basis code marked as agent-only, or through the airline's own B2B portal — IndiGo's ₹agent portal or Air India's trade portal, for instance. Consolidators also issue their own net fares, which are often even lower than what a small agency could negotiate directly.
What does 'published fare' actually include?
Published fares are public fares — the price you see when you search IndiGo, Air India, MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip, or FlightGPT without any trade credentials. They include the base fare, fuel surcharge, and whatever fees the airline bundles into the quoted number. Taxes (airport development fees, UDF, GST on base fare) are usually shown separately on the booking page.
Published fares come in fare classes — Q, V, T, K, M, Y and so on, from cheapest to most expensive. Each class has a different set of rules: refundability, change fees, mileage accrual, upgrade eligibility. A net fare will usually correspond to one of these published fare classes — the agent buys on the same class but at a lower net price, and sells at or below the published price for that class.
One thing agents in India often trip up on: GST treatment. The airline issues the ticket, so GST on the airfare (18% for business class, 5% for economy) is charged and paid by the airline on the published fare. When an agent earns a margin by selling above net, that margin is technically service income to the agency and should be declared under the agency's own GST registration. This is where many small agencies get into trouble during audits — they treat the entire ticket value as turnover rather than just the commission/service fee portion.
How do margins actually work on IndiGo vs Air India tickets?
This is where I will be honest with you rather than invent comforting numbers: net fare margins vary enormously by airline, route, season, volume tier, and whether you are accessing the fare through a GDS, the airline's own B2B portal, or a consolidator. That said, here is the honest texture of the Indian market as of 2026:
- IndiGo domestic: IndiGo has historically offered very tight margins on domestic routes because its own website is extremely price-competitive and the airline views agent distribution as a cost to be minimised. Net fares are available through the IndiGo agent portal but the spread over the cheapest published bucket can be thin — sometimes less than ₹200 on a short-haul sector. On high-demand routes during peak periods, net fares may actually be at parity with or occasionally above the lowest published bucket if that bucket is sold out and the net fare applies to a higher class. Agents making real money on IndiGo domestic are usually doing volume — hundreds of tickets a month — where PLB (Performance Linked Bonus, a quarterly incentive payment) adds up more meaningfully than per-ticket margin.
- Air India international: This is where agent economics look materially different. On long-haul international routes — say, Mumbai to London or Delhi to New York — the spread between a net fare and the published economy fare can run into thousands of rupees per ticket. Group fares (negotiated for a block of 10+ seats) can be even lower. The reason is that on international routes with lower load factors or where Air India competes with multiple carriers, the airline has more motivation to buy distribution through competitive net fares. Air India's trade portal (accessible to accredited IATA agents and registered non-IATA trade partners) is where these fares live.
- Akasa Air: Relatively new to the agency channel; net fare programmes are still maturing. Worth registering on their trade portal if you do volume on their routes.
- SpiceJet: Operationally constrained in 2025-2026; agent programmes have been inconsistent. Verify current status before committing to any volume deal.
If you are running a B2B travel operation, FlightGPT Partner aggregates inventory with pre-negotiated net fares across carriers — worth evaluating as part of your sourcing stack.
What is PLB and why does it matter more than per-ticket margin?
Performance Linked Bonus (PLB) — sometimes called incentive commission — is a quarterly or annual cash payment airlines make to agencies that hit volume targets on specific routes or overall ticket counts. It is the 'back-end' income in agent economics, as opposed to the 'front-end' net fare margin.
For many high-volume Indian agencies, PLB is where they actually make money. The per-ticket margin on domestic routes might be near-zero, but if the agency issues 5,000 IndiGo tickets in a quarter and hits the PLB threshold, the lump-sum payment can represent a healthy effective margin per ticket when averaged back.
PLB targets are negotiated between the agency and the airline's regional commercial team. They are volume-based (ticket count or revenue value, or both), route-specific (airlines push PLB harder on routes where they want more share), and seasonal. They are also confidential — you will not find PLB rate cards published anywhere, because airlines do not want agencies to comparison-shop PLB terms publicly.
New agencies — especially those without IATA accreditation, operating as sub-agents or through a consolidator — typically do not have direct access to PLB programmes. That is one of the structural advantages IATA-accredited agencies hold over informal operators.
Net fares on GDS vs airline direct portals — which is better?
This is a live debate in every Indian agency I have spoken to. The honest answer is: it depends on what you are selling.
GDS platforms (Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo/Travelport) aggregate inventory from most airlines in a single interface, support complex itineraries and interline journeys, and issue standard e-tickets that work seamlessly for changes and refunds. Net fares on GDS are visible to the agent through specific fare basis codes. The downside: GDS access costs money. There are segment fees (per booking fee charged to the agency, partially offset by GDS incentive payments on volume) and the GDS contract itself requires some minimum issuance commitment.
Airline direct B2B portals (IndiGo Agent, Air India trade site, Air India Express B2B) cut out the GDS middleman. You get the airline's own net fare, no segment fees, and sometimes better availability on sold-out classes. The downside: each airline is a separate login, separate reporting, separate settlement cycle. You cannot build a multi-carrier itinerary natively in a direct portal.
Most mid-sized Indian agencies use both: GDS for international multi-carrier bookings and complex itineraries, direct portals for high-volume domestic sectors where the net fare difference justifies the operational overhead. Consolidators like SOTC Wholesale, Akbar Travels (wholesale division), and regional consolidators offer a middle path — their own net fare contracts with airlines, resold to sub-agents at a slight markup, accessible through a single interface.
Bottom line for agents
Understanding the net vs published fare distinction is table stakes for any Indian agent. The actual margin in 2026 is thinner on domestic routes than it was a decade ago — low-cost carriers have compressed it deliberately. The game has shifted to volume, PLB, international routes, and value-added services (visa, hotel, insurance) where margins are healthier and less compressed by airline direct-booking pressure.
If you are newer to the agent channel, start with our overview of how Indian travel agents actually get cheaper flights and what consolidators can do for your sourcing. And if you are building out a B2B booking operation, it is worth looking at FlightGPT Partner as part of your platform stack.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between net fare and published fare in India?
Net fare is the confidential price an airline charges an accredited travel agent — lower than the public price and never shown to consumers. Published fare is the retail price shown on airline websites and OTAs like MakeMyTrip or EaseMyTrip. Agents buy at net, add a markup, and sell at or below the published price. The spread between the two is the agent's gross margin, though on domestic IndiGo routes this can be quite narrow.
Can a travel agent sell a ticket below the net fare?
No — airlines set a floor price below which agents are contractually prohibited from selling. Selling below net fare would mean selling at a loss and also violates the agent agreement, risking deaccreditation. Some consolidators and OTAs have historically used loyalty points or cashback to effectively undercut, but the base ticket price itself cannot go below the net floor.
Do non-IATA agents in India get access to net fares?
Non-IATA agents typically access net fares through a consolidator or a host IATA agency rather than directly from the airline. Consolidators negotiate net fares with airlines at volume and resell to sub-agents at a slight markup — the sub-agent still gets a price below published fare but slightly above the IATA agent's net rate. Akbar Travels wholesale, SOTC Wholesale, and several regional consolidators serve this segment in India.
How does PLB (Performance Linked Bonus) work for Indian travel agencies?
PLB is a quarterly or annual lump-sum payment airlines make to agencies that hit agreed volume or revenue targets on specific routes. The rate and target thresholds are privately negotiated between the agency and the airline's commercial team. For high-volume domestic agencies, PLB can represent the majority of effective airline income — the per-ticket net margin on IndiGo domestic routes is often thin enough that it is the PLB that makes the economics work.
Is the net fare the same on GDS and on the airline's direct B2B portal?
Not always. Airline direct portals sometimes offer a slightly better net fare because there are no GDS segment fees layered in, but GDS fares often include availability on classes that the airline's own portal restricts. Most established Indian agencies compare both and book through whichever source yields the better net effective cost for each transaction. For complex multi-carrier international itineraries, GDS is usually unavoidable.
How should GST be handled on an agent's margin between net and published fare?
The airline pays GST on the full ticket value it issues. The agent's margin — the spread between the net fare paid to the airline and the amount collected from the customer — is service income in the agent's hands and should be declared under the agency's own GST registration (typically at 18% as a service). The full ticket revenue should not be treated as the agency's turnover for GST purposes. Consult a CA familiar with travel-industry GST and verify with the GST portal (gst.gov.in) for current treatment.