Online agent travel.com.au will enable its customers to purchase Impulse airline tickets through the travel.com.au Web site, in a non-commission agreement that will enable new entrant Impulse to hang onto its AU$66 domestic deal.
"We don't do things for nothing," travel.com.au CEO David Tonkin told ZDNet Australia. "It's a marketing agreement. You'd have to suppose that Impulse is paying something out of their marketing budget to promote [domestic deals] through us," Tonkin added.
Committed to keeping the cost of ticketing down, Impulse has previously said that for this reason it would not strike commission deals for travel agents' services.
Effective immediately, travel.com.au will refer consumers looking for a cheap domestic flight to impulseairlines.com.au -- via a link to the site.
"We think its valuable for our customers to have Impulse as an option," Tonkin said.
Impulse Airlines has became a substantial force in the local airfare price war since it hit the market with AU$66 domestic seats on August 6.
Industry big wigs Qantas and Ansett immediately matched the special offer and claimed that they could maintain the discount fares because people who didn't usually travel would be snapping up seats -- filling those that would otherwise be empty.
The cost of the marketing agreement between travel.com.au and Impulse Airlines remains undisclosed.
