Thai Travel Agents Won't Bear Cost of Airline Fare Hike.

Dec. 5--Travel agents who had pre-sold domestic flights before Thai Airways International raised fares by 20 percent would not have to bear the increased cost, the airline said yesterday.

The national carrier raised domestic fares across the board, effective Nov 15. Agents had complained that they could not pass the increased cost along to customers for any flights already sold for the post Nov-15 period.

The agents must submit booking details to the airline by Dec 15 in order to qualify for the lower fares.

Thai Airways also said yesterday that it would halve the number of its Bangkok-Los Angeles flights to three a week in response to plummeting air travel since the events of Sept 11.

Travel and tourism executives had raised concerns about higher domestic airfares, and the specific problem facing agents with advance bookings, at a recent meeting with Tasnai Sudasna na Ayudhya, the airline's executive vice-president for commercial affairs.

Tourism operators had complained that the fare increases came at a bad time, particularly since the government was promoting domestic travel to make up for a drop in business from abroad.

THAI chairman Virabongsa Ramangkura earlier defended the higher fares, saying that domestic routes lost two billion baht a year and the airline had to get serious about improving revenues.