Northwest Drops One Fee; AMR Adds Two

Northwest Airlines Corp. reversed a service charge on travel agents after the nation’s largest carrier, American Airlines, imposed two new ticket-booking fees but declined to match the one on travel-agent transactions.

American, a unit of AMR Corp., will begin assessing a service fee of $5 to buy a ticket over the telephone and $10 for purchases at an airport counter, copying fees Northwest announced last week.

But after American’s announcement, Northwest said it would rescind a $7.50 service charge it had planned for round-trip tickets purchased through ticket distribution systems that travel agents use.

American expects to reap $25 million a year from the fees, which take effect Monday.

From Associated Press

* Continental Airlines Inc. said it would cut about 425 jobs, or 1% of its workforce, through staff reductions, attrition and elimination of unfilled vacancies as part of an effort to trim expenses by an additional $200 million.