Travel Agents Fighting Back Against Limits : Airlines: Agency franchiser files an antitrust suit alleging that carriers broke laws in reducing commissions.

Travel-agent anger at the nation’s major airlines spread Wednesday, with one large travel company suing to block the carriers’ from capping commissions and the industry’s largest trade group threatening to go to court.

In recent days, the nation’s six largest airlines all agreed to eliminate the agents’ traditional 10% commission and replace it with a $50 cap on round-trip domestic flights. Agents around the country, infuriated by moves they say could drive many of them out of business, have been organizing emergency meetings to block the actions.

One major agency, Travel Network Ltd., a 350-office franchiser based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. became the first major travel firm to mount a legal challenge to the caps. In a complaint filed in federal court, the agency charges that the airlines broke antitrust and price-fixing laws in capping commissions.

The airlines took the moves in an effort to cut costs and shore up their profits at a time when the industry is struggling to cope with fare wars and recover from the devastating recession of the early 1990s.

The American Society of Travel Agents, an association representing 25,000 agents nationwide, said that it will meet this weekend to decide what action to take. Among the possibilities are an antitrust lawsuit of its own, an ASTA spokesman said.

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ASTA estimates that the commission caps could put 50,000 of the nation’s 250,000 airline agents out of work. “We are going fight for our survival,” spokesman Steve Loucks vowed. “We feel the airlines have really miscalculated this.”

Travel Network filed its lawsuit in Minneapolis, home to Northwest Airlines. The suit also names Delta, Continental, American, USAir and United as defendants, and it is likely be amended to include Trans World Airlines, which Wednesday joined the other carriers in limiting commissions. The lawsuit asks for an injunction to immediately halt the new policy.

“Cost cutting must be accomplished by an airline to survive,” said Bill Berry, spokesman for Atlanta-based Delta, which was the first big airline to cap the agents’ payments. “From our standpoint, this lawsuit does not have any merit.”

The airlines’ moves are seen as particularly damaging for medium-size and large travel agencies that handle expensive travel accounts for large corporations. Business travelers, who often hop planes on a moment’s notice and demand first-class service, pay the highest fares. Their tickets for a single flight often cost several hundred dollars, generating sizable commission income for travel agencies, compared to tickets bought by more cost-conscious leisure fliers.

Travel agencies indicated they may begin charging fees for services that had been free to customers, such as booking for low-priced tickets or changes in seat assignments.

“We’re having to roll them out a lot faster than expected,” said Melissa Abernathy, spokeswoman for American Express Travel Services in New York. The company launched a test of charging for certain airline ticketing services in December.

Others say these kinds of fees have been expected for some time. “We thought this change would take a couple of years,” said Travis Tanner, co-president of Carlson Wagonlit Travel in Minneapolis, with 4,000 locations worldwide. The airlines’ policy change “speeded up everything.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.