From the 8th of September, five major US airlines will start charging travel agents, both traditional and online, an extra US$3.50 for each individual booking on domestic flights. Many travel agents have already declared that they are passing this charge onto customers.

This is bad news for travel agents who are already seeing many travellers chose to book their tickets over the internet.

Continental, U.S. Airways, Northwest, United and American airlines are all expected to incorporate the additional fee for tickets bought through the global distribution system.

Passengers using airports where there are little direct flights, such as the one in Colorado Springs, may be hit twice with the fees as they would need to buy connecting flights on separate tickets. And if a return flight is needed, the fees could amount to US$14.

This is predicted to be a severe blow for US travel agencies, already suffering after statistics show that there are 30% less travel agencies from between 2000 and 2004.

Airlines say that the fee will help in offsetting higher distribution and administrative fees, and are hoping travellers will be enticed to buy directly from the airline via internet sites.

Valerie Wunder, U.S. Airways Spokesperson said, "We're trying to keep our costs low, we have methods that can do that. It's a way to keep costs down, and we are able to pass that savings to the customers. If they go through our distribution method, it saves them money."

Bob Harrell, airfare specialist with Harrell Associates, thinks airlines won't be able to handle the extra website traffic, "The reason travel agencies had the business in the first place was because the airlines couldn't handle offering that service."