News Brief02:55 AM

(IsraelNN.com) After El Al raised prices last week on most of its routes, Lufthansa and Swiss announced on Thursday that they will charge Israelis "handling fees" of between $50 and $150, beginning September 1. The new fees are not connected to rising fuel fees, however – they are to pacify travel agents, who are up in arms over a new policy by the airlines not to pay them commissions. The fee will apply to tickets bought through agents or directly from the airlines over the Internet.

The loss of the commissions, about 7% per ticket, would be a “death blow” to the travel agency business, travel industry official Yossi Fatael wrote in a letter to Transportation Ministry Director-General Gideon Siterman. "Implementing Lufthansa's policy will cause dozens of travel agencies across the country to shut down, many workers to lose their source of income, and plane ticket prices to go up,” he wrote. The airlines have claimed that a similar policy in Europe has not harmed travel agencies.