When should a travel agency get IATA?

Every agency that sells flights asks this at some point. Here is how I think about it.

Before IATA, consolidators issue tickets for you

You don’t need IATA to sell flights.

Until you have it, consolidators issue tickets for you on their own office ID. You make the sale, they issue the ticket.

My rough rule of thumb

My own rough estimate is around 400 to 500 tickets a month.

This is a personal estimate from my experience, not an industry rule. Your routes, fares and margins may point to a different number.

What changes when you get IATA

With IATA you get direct ticketing authority.

That means better fares and more margin, because you no longer need a consolidator to issue every ticket.