The additional incentives are being offered for sale till September-end. Air India and Jet Airways also offer one per cent regular commission. Agents also earn productivity-linked commission for meeting sales targets.

Air India earns between Rs45 crore - Rs50 crore in revenue daily and of this, Rs5 crore - Rs8 crore comes from business class sales across its domestic and international network. The airline expects a big boost in its business class loads as it joins the 26-member Star Alliance which offers business travellers reciprocal frequent flyer benefits, lounge access and other benefits.

Jet is also standardising cabin configuration on its Boeing 737 fleet, with 12 business class and 156 economy class seats, to improve yields by tapping into both segments. Currently, the 737 planes are flown in three configurations; 29 of these aircraft will be reconfigured.

Agents say business class demand is slow and companies have cut down on travel expenses and such incentive schemes are one way to encourage agents to push sales. These schemes are routinely used to boost sales on international flights but are not very common in domestic sales. Jet Airways is also selling coupons worth Rs1.10 lakh to agents, which are used to issue up to four business class tickets. “The coupons are popular among business travellers as using them helps them save costs by about 10 per cent,” said Pradip Lulla, national general secretary of Travel Agents Federation of India.

Both, Air India and Jet Airways are also facing competition from low cost airlines IndiGo and SpiceJet in the economy class segment. The launch of Tata-Singapore Airlines will increase competition in the premium business as well. Tata-Singapore Airlines is targeting a September launch, with 87 weekly flights in the first year of operations, the airline has said in its application to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation or DGCA for an air operator’s permit.

These flights will link Delhi with Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Goa, Jammu, Srinagar, Patna and Chandigarh.