GSAs or not GSAs? A Big Question Airlines Face Today.

GSA, Branch, or Hybrid? Choose the model, don’t let the model choose you.

Let me tell you something I've learned after more than 20 years working in airline commercial management across different continents. Every airline, whether it's a giant carrier or a smaller regional player, eventually faces the same critical question: How do we sell our product in markets where we don't have a physical presence? And honestly, there's no single right answer. But there are definitely smart ways and not-so-smart ways to approach this decision.

The Scenarios Airlines Actually Face

Let's talk about the real situations airlines deal with every day. First, there's the obvious one: an airline wants to enter a brand new market. Maybe they're launching (let’s use Greece as an example) a new route from Rome to Athens, and they need someone on the ground in Greece to start selling tickets, talking to travel agencies, and bringing in corporate accounts. This is where most people think about GSAs.

But here's what people often forget. There's another situation that's becoming more and more common these days. Airlines that already have their own offices in a market are now asking themselves: Should we keep paying for this expensive local structure, or should we close it down and switch to working with a GSA instead? Or maybe keep just one or two key account managers working remotely from home, without any physical office at all?

I'm seeing this happen everywhere right now. Airlines are looking at their local offices and thinking: We're paying huge money for rent, salaries, benefits, local taxes, and all the administrative headaches. Meanwhile, we could centralize most of this work at our headquarters, possibly keeping one person locally as a relationship manager, and save a significant amount of money. This is the reality of 2025.

And there's a third scenario too. Some airlines are going even further and saying: Why do we need anyone local at all? Let's centralize everything. Our commercial teams can manage these markets remotely from headquarters using video calls, email, and our digital platforms. Is this crazy? Well, it depends.

What Exactly Does a GSA Do?

Before we dive deeper, let me explain what a GSA actually is, because not everyone fully understands this. A General Sales Agent is basically your airline's exclusive representative in a specific territory. They're not just selling tickets. A good GSA is out there meeting travel agencies every week, calling on corporate accounts, attending industry events, managing your brand reputation locally, handling customer complaints, organizing promotional campaigns, and feeding you intelligence about what competitors are doing.

Think of them as your eyes, ears, and hands in that market. They work on commission, usually somewhere between 1,5% -starter- to even 5% (on special tier-based scheme) of the ticket flown revenue the B2B local channel generates, depending on the market and what services they provide.

When Working with a GSA Makes Perfect Sense

Let me be straight with you. For most airlines entering a new market, working with a GSA is usually the smart move, at least at the beginning. Here's why:

A) you get immediate access to relationships that took someone else years to build. A good GSA in Athens already knows every important travel agency, has personal relationships with corporate travel managers at major Greek companies, understands which shipping companies are booking premium travel, and knows how the local market actually works. You can't buy this with money. Well, actually you can, through their commission, but you know what I mean.

B) the financial model makes sense when you're starting out. Instead of committing to maybe three hundred thousand euros per year for a local office before you've sold a single ticket, you pay the GSA only when they actually generate revenue. If the route doesn't work out, you can exit the relationship much more easily than closing down an owned operation with employees who have contracts and rights.

C) and this matters more than people realize, you avoid all the local complexity. Employment law in Greece is different from Germany or Spain or wherever your headquarters is. Tax compliance, social security, insurance, local regulations about everything from signage to data protection... a GSA deals with all of this because they're already set up locally.

But here's the thing everyone in the industry knows but doesn't always say out loud. The quality of GSAs varies enormously. Some are absolutely excellent, truly professional partners who will drive your business forward. Others are lazy, living off old relationships, not really pushing hard because they're also representing your competitors and frankly can't be bothered to put in the extra effort. Choosing right partner is everything.

The Real Problems with GSA Partnerships

Now, let me talk about why airlines often get frustrated with GSAs, because these frustrations are legitimate.

The biggest issue is control. When you hand over your sales to a GSA, you're trusting them with your brand, your customer relationships, and your reputation in that market. If they provide poor service, if they push your inconvenient connection over a competitor's better flight because the commission structure favors it, if they don't follow up properly with leads you've generated... you suffer, but you're not there to see it or fix it immediately.

Then there's the money side. Let's say your route from Rome to Athens grows nicely and starts generating 5M€ euros annually. That GSA commission of -let’s assume- 3.5% means you're paying them 175K€ every year. At some point, you start thinking: We could hire our own people for less than this and keep better control.

And here's something that really bothers airlines in today's digital age. When a GSA sells your tickets, they own those customer relationships, not you. You get sales reports, sure, but you don't get the detailed customer data, booking behaviors, and insights you need to optimize your revenue management, personalize your marketing, or understand what's really happening in the market. This information gap is becoming less and less acceptable as airlines try to become more sophisticated about data analytics.

There's also the performance question. How do you really know if your GSA is doing a good job? Maybe your route is performing well, but is that because of their efforts or because you're flying a popular route at competitive prices and it would sell anyway? It's very hard to measure their true added value, especially if you don't have someone from your team on the ground regularly checking what's actually happening.

The Money Reality: When Does Each Model Make Sense?

Let me give you some real numbers so you can understand the economics. If you set up your own small local office with let's say 2 people doing sales and 1 person handling administrative work, you're looking at roughly:

• Personnel costs with salaries and benefits: 120K€ to 150K€

• Office space and infrastructure: 30K€ to 40K€

• Marketing & promotions budget: 10K€ to 20K€

• Administrative, legal, compliance: 10K€ to 20K€

Total: about 170K€ to 230K€ annually, and remember, you're paying this from day one, whether you generate any revenue or not.

Compare this to a GSA commission. If they generate 3,5M€ in sales at -lets assume- ≈4% commission, you pay them 140K€ + maybe ≈20K€ for joint marketing. Total: ≈160K€, but only if they actually sell.

Looks kind of similar, right? But here's the crucial difference. The owned operation needs 18 to 24 months before it's really functioning well and generating good revenue. The GSA starts from month one. However, if your market grows to 7,5M€ annually, that GSA commission becomes 300K€, and suddenly having your own office looks much cheaper.

My rule of thumb from experience? GSA partnerships make economic sense up to about 3M€ to max. 6M€ in annual revenue. After that, you should seriously consider transitioning to your own operation.

The New Models Nobody Talks About Enough

Here's where it gets interesting and where I think the industry is actually heading. The old binary choice of "GSA or owned office" is disappearing. Smart airlines are creating hybrid models that combine the best of both approaches.

What does this look like? Let me describe what I'm seeing work well.

One model is the "slim local presence." You hire one really good commercial manager who lives in that market. They work from home or a coworking space, so you avoid the whole office infrastructure cost. But this person is your employee, loyal to you, managing your brand and strategy. Then you partner with a GSA but with a much narrower scope. Maybe the GSA only handles the smaller travel agencies while your commercial manager focuses on the top 20 corporate accounts and major agencies. This way you maintain control where it matters most while still getting wide market coverage.

Another model is what I call "specialized partnerships". Instead of one big GSA doing everything, you work with different specialized partners. Maybe one agency just does your digital marketing and social media. Another handles your trade relationships with smaller agencies. A third manages your corporate accounts. You orchestrate all of them rather than giving everything to one GSA. This is more management work for you, but you get best-in-class for each function.

There's also the "centralized sales with local support" model. Your main sales team works from headquarters, they manage all the major accounts remotely through video calls and CRM systems, but you have one local person who's basically a relationship manager and facilitator. When your sales director needs to visit a client, this local person sets it up, joins the meeting, and follows up. You get local presence without the full cost structure.

What's Happening with B2B vs B2C Sales Right Now

This is critical to understand because it changes everything about the GSA decision. Airlines used to rely heavily on travel agencies and corporate travel managers to sell their tickets. This is B2B sales – business to business. The GSA's main job was managing these B2B relationships.

But here's what's happening now. Airlines want to shift more and more sales directly to consumers – B2C, business to consumer. Why? Because when you sell direct through your website or app, you don't pay GDS fees that can be 3% to 5% of the ticket price, you don't pay agency commissions, and most importantly, you get all the customer data and can sell them extra services directly.

Low-cost carriers like Ryanair and EasyJet figured this out years ago. They sell almost everything direct to consumers. But now traditional airlines are trying to move in this direction too, and this is changing what they need from local market partners.

If you're selling more and more B2C direct, do you even need a traditional GSA who's focused on agency relationships? Maybe not in the old way. But you probably do need digital marketing expertise, social media management, influencer partnerships, and local content creation. These are very different skills from the traditional GSA's agency sales calls.

Even within B2B sales, things are changing. Airlines are trying to reduce expensive GDS distribution by connecting directly with agencies and corporate clients through NDC – New Distribution Capability. This is basically a modern technology that lets airlines send their full product range, including all the extras like seat selection and baggage options, directly to agencies through API connections, bypassing the old GDS systems.

What this means is that if you can connect your top 20 or 30 corporate accounts and major agencies directly to your system through NDC, you might not need a GSA to manage those relationships as intensively. You still need someone for relationship maintenance and problem-solving, but not necessarily the traditional GSA model.

Airlines Closing Local Offices: Why It's Happening

Let me tell you what I'm seeing across the industry because this is one of the biggest trends right now. Airlines everywhere are closing local offices and either switching to GSA partnerships or going to very minimal local presence.

Why? Several reasons, and they all come down to pressure on costs. The airline industry in 2024 and 2025 has been tough. Yes, passenger demand recovered after COVID, but costs have gone up tremendously. Fuel prices, airport charges, labor costs, aircraft lease rates... everything is more expensive. Airlines are under huge pressure to cut costs wherever they can.

Local sales offices are an obvious target because they're expensive and, honestly, their value has declined in the digital age. Twenty years ago, if you wanted to book a flight from Athens to anywhere, you probably went to a travel agency or called the airline's local office. Today, most people book online. So why maintain that expensive office?

I'm also seeing this because airline headquarters staff have gotten much better at managing remote markets. Good CRM systems, video conferencing, shared databases, digital marketing tools... your commercial team in Rome can now do a lot of what used to require local presence. Not everything, but a lot.

Another factor is that senior management at airlines often doesn't really understand what local sales teams do day-to-day. They see the cost on the financial statement – let's say 300K€ for the Athens office – and they see that online sales are growing, and they think: Why are we paying this? Can't we manage it from headquarters? Sometimes they're right. Sometimes they're making a mistake they'll regret when relationships deteriorate and sales drop, but by then it's often too late or very expensive to rebuild.

So you're seeing airlines make different choices. Some are switching from owned offices to GSA partnerships to convert fixed costs to variable costs. Some are going to the minimal local presence model I described. Some are trying to go fully centralized with no local presence at all, managing everything remotely.

Does fully centralized work? Sometimes. For very price-driven markets where relationships matter less, where distribution is mostly online, and where the airline has a strong brand, yes, you can manage remotely. But for markets like Greece where business culture is very relationship-based, where corporate accounts expect personal attention, where trust is built over time through face-to-face interaction... trying to manage everything remotely is usually a mistake. You'll save money in the short term but lose market share to competitors who maintain local presence and relationships.

What Different Partnership Models Actually Exist

Let me describe the various collaboration options that exist beyond just the traditional GSA, because understanding these options helps you make better decisions.

The traditional full-service GSA is what we've been mostly discussing. They do everything: agency sales calls, corporate account management, marketing, customer service support, crisis management, reporting. You pay them a commission on all revenue they generate. This is still the most common model.

Then there's the commission-only sales representative. This is lighter than a full GSA. You might have someone who just does sales calls to agencies and corporates, but all the marketing, pricing, inventory management stays with you. They work purely on commission, usually lower than a full GSA because they're doing less. This can work well if you want to keep more control but still need local selling effort.

There's the retainer plus commission model. Here you pay the GSA or representative a fixed monthly fee to guarantee minimum service levels – like a certain number of client visits per month, presence at trade events, regular reporting – plus commission on sales. This aligns incentives better than pure commission because they're not just chasing easy sales.

The project-based partnership is less common but can be useful. Maybe you're launching a new route and you need intensive market preparation: agency visits, corporate presentations, media relations, launch event. You hire a specialist for a fixed fee to execute this project over three or six months. After launch, maybe you either terminate, extend, or switch to a different model.

There's also buying specific services à-la-carte. You might hire one company to manage your social media and digital marketing in Greece. Another to organize trade events and presentations. A third to handle your top corporate accounts. You're basically unbundling the traditional GSA role and selecting best-in-class providers for each piece. This takes more coordination from your side but can be very effective.

Another model is the master franchise or partnership model where a local company essentially buys the rights to represent your brand in their market, they invest their own money in building your business there, and you share revenue or profits according to an agreed formula. This is common in cargo but rare in passenger airlines.

And finally, there's what I'd call the management services model, which is actually what my company Turnkey-Ready does. We don't just represent multiple airlines like a traditional GSA. We become the dedicated commercial team for one airline in Greece. We're like your outsourced commercial department. We do everything your own sales office would do – key account management, sales strategy, business development, reporting, partnership negotiation – but as an external partner rather than your employees. This gives you the dedicated focus and strategic thinking of your own team, but without the fixed cost structure and management overhead of employees.

Where This Is All Heading: My Professional View

Now let me tell you what I see coming in the next 3 to 5 years, based on everything I'm observing in the market and my twenty-plus years of experience watching how this industry evolves.

First, the traditional multi-carrier GSA that represents ten or fifteen different airlines is going to decline significantly. Airlines don't want to be one of many carriers in someone's portfolio. They want focus, dedication, and aligned interests. So you'll see more demand for exclusive or semi-exclusive partnerships.

Second, the shift toward B2C direct sales will continue accelerating. This means the role of local sales partners has to evolve. Instead of focusing primarily on travel agency relationships, they need to become experts in digital marketing, performance marketing, social media, content creation, and local influencer partnerships. The GSAs that don't develop these capabilities will become less relevant.

Third, technology will make slim local presence more viable. Better CRM systems, AI-powered sales tools, automated reporting, virtual meeting technologies... all of this means you can do more with fewer people on the ground. I expect to see a lot more airlines going to the "one or two key account managers plus centralized support" model instead of full local offices.

Fourth, within B2B sales, direct NDC connections are going to become standard for large corporate accounts and major agencies. This means the sales partner's role shifts from transaction processing to relationship management, problem-solving, and strategic development. You need fewer people doing transactional work and more people doing strategic advisory work.

Fifth, I think we'll see new types of partnerships that combine multiple airlines. Maybe three or four non-competing airlines share a common commercial representation in a market to split the costs. You're seeing some of this already with airline alliances and joint ventures, but I think it will extend further.

Sixth, data analytics and performance measurement will become much more sophisticated. Airlines will demand real-time dashboards, detailed performance metrics, customer journey analytics, and competitive intelligence. The GSAs or partners who can't provide this level of reporting and insight will lose business to those who can.

Seventh, and this is important for smaller markets like Greece, I believe the "hybrid model" I described earlier will become dominant. Most airlines will want some local presence – even if it's just one dedicated person – combined with specialized service providers for different functions. The days of choosing between "full GSA or owned office" are ending. The future is modular, flexible partnerships.

Finally, I think airlines will increasingly differentiate their approach by market maturity and strategic importance. For a major hub market that generates 15+M€ in revenue annually, they'll maintain their own office. For a medium market generating 3M€ to 7M€, they'll use the hybrid model with limited local presence plus partners. For small or test markets generating under 2M€, they'll use pure GSA or even fully centralized management.

What I Recommend: My Professional Opinion

After all these years in this business, here's what I honestly believe is the smart approach for most airlines today.

If you're entering a completely new market, start with a carefully selected GSA partnership for the first 2 to 3 years. But be very selective. Don't just choose the GSA that already represents many airlines. Look for someone with strong corporate relationships, modern digital marketing capabilities, excellent reputation, and genuine enthusiasm for your brand. Write a contract that includes clear performance metrics, regular reviews, and protection of customer data.

Then, plan for evolution from day one. Don't think of the GSA partnership as permanent. Think of it as phase one. Around year 3, when you have good revenue and understand the market better, evaluate whether to transition to a hybrid model with your own commercial manager plus selective service partners, or whether to continue with the GSA but renegotiate terms.

If you're an airline that currently has local offices in multiple markets, I'd suggest conducting a hard-headed market-by-market analysis. For each market ask: What's our annual revenue here? What's our market share trend? How relationship-dependent is our business? How good is our local team really? Could we achieve similar or better results with a different model at lower cost?

Then categorize your markets. Your absolute top-tier markets, you probably keep your own operation. Your medium markets, experiment with the hybrid model. Your smaller or declining markets, transition to partnerships or consider if you even need to maintain the route.

If you're considering going fully centralized with no local presence, my advice is: be very careful. This can work for some situations – very strong brand, price-driven market, mostly online distribution, young customer base comfortable with digital channels. But for relationship-heavy markets, corporate-focused business, or cultures where trust is built face-to-face, you're playing with fire. You might save money for a year or two, but then wake up to realize competitors who maintained local presence have taken your best customers.

For the Greek market specifically, which I know intimately, I believe the optimal model for most foreign airlines is what I call "dedicated local commercial presence with strategic partnership." This means having one or two people who are deeply focused on your brand, managing your top corporate accounts and key agency relationships, supported by specialized partners for different functions. This works because Greek business culture values personal relationships enormously, but you can't justify a full office structure unless you're generating very large revenue.

Where Turnkey-Ready Fits into All This

Let me be transparent about how I see my own company fitting into this evolving landscape, because I think we represent exactly the kind of solution airlines are looking for.

We're not a traditional GSA. We don't represent ten different airlines and divide our attention. When we work with an airline for the Greek market, we become their dedicated commercial team. We function exactly like their own sales office would, but structured as a partnership rather than employees.

What does this mean practically? We manage your key corporate accounts directly, just as your own sales manager would. We develop your route network strategy for Greece. We create and execute marketing campaigns. We negotiate strategic partnerships. We represent you at industry events and trade shows. We provide detailed business intelligence and competitive analysis. We attend your global commercial meetings and contribute to your strategic planning.

But here's why this model works better than either a traditional GSA or an owned office in today's environment. Unlike a GSA, we're not juggling multiple airline clients and divided loyalties. Unlike an owned office, you don't carry the fixed costs, management overhead, HR complexity, or long-term commitments. You get dedication and focus without the burden of direct employment.

We bring something else too: experience at the highest level of airline commercial management. My 2 decades with Alitalia across multiple international markets means I understand airline commercial strategy, revenue management, network planning, and corporate sales at a very sophisticated level. You're not just getting a sales representative. You're getting strategic commercial consulting integrated with sales execution.

For airlines evaluating their Greek market approach, whether you're considering entering the market, or you currently have an office and are thinking about alternatives, or you work with a traditional GSA and aren't satisfied, I believe our model offers the optimal balance of quality, focus, cost efficiency, and strategic value.

We also address the digital transformation challenge. We understand that B2C direct sales are growing and that NDC is changing B2B relationships. We can help you develop your digital marketing presence in Greece, manage your social media, create content, while simultaneously maintaining the face-to-face relationship selling that's still essential in this market.

The Bottom Line

Here's my final message after everything we've discussed. There is no universal answer to "GSA or not GSA." The right answer depends on your specific situation: the market you're entering or operating in, your revenue size, your strategic importance for that market, your company's capabilities and resources, and where the industry is heading.

What I'm certain about is this: the old binary choice of "traditional full-service GSA or owned office" is disappearing. The future is hybrid models, modular partnerships, specialized service providers, and flexible arrangements that combine the best of different approaches.

The winners will be airlines that think strategically about their market representation, that choose partners carefully based on quality not just price, that demand performance and accountability, that plan for evolution rather than static arrangements, and that stay flexible as the market continues to change.

And for partners like my company, the future belongs to those who can offer airlines what they really need: dedicated focus, strategic thinking, deep local market expertise, modern digital capabilities, complete transparency, and performance-driven execution.

The travel industry is going through an enormous transformation. Airlines that make smart choices about their commercial representation in each market will gain a competitive advantage. Those who stick with outdated models or make purely cost-driven decisions without understanding local market dynamics will struggle.

I hope this helps you think more clearly about these critical decisions. If you're wrestling with these questions for the Greek market specifically, let's talk. I've lived these challenges from both sides, and I'd be happy to share more specific insights for your situation.