LOCAL TRAVEL AGENTS SCRAMBLING BECAUSE OF REDUCED AIRFARES

Air fares are at their lowest level in five years, according to travel agents scrambling to keep up with consumers eager to get a bargain on summer flights.

"This is the busiest I think any airline or travel agency has been in ages and ages," said Barbara Rhein, manager of World Travel Center in Cape Girardeau.

Rhein said she and others at her agency are working 15-hour days trying to process hundreds of orders for airline tickets.

"We've been working until 10 every night, and then taking work home with us," she said.

Air fares dropped last Thursday for most airlines, and the low rates have been advertised to continue until Friday. But it's possible the rates will be extended.

Mark Hill, owner of Destinations Unlimited, said the low fares, coupled with the already busy summer travel season, are wreaking havoc on agencies.

"We're open seven days a week, and on Sunday, people were lined up at the door," Hill said. "For years, I've never seen anything like it."

The fares are hard to resist, some at a fraction of what they were just weeks ago. Even super saver rates are half-price in some instances.

A round-trip flight from St. Louis to New York City is just $110, Hill said. A round-trip ticket to Orlando, a popular summer destination for families, is just $132, and a round-trip flight from St. Louis to San Francisco is just $155.

In most cases, the tickets must be used by Sept. 13, he said.

"It's just incredible," Hill said. "It's the lowest it's been in five years."

People who had planned to drive to their favorite vacation spot this summer are opting to fly instead.

But as busy as most agents are, they're not getting rich from all the business. Rhein said though consumers are getting a great deal, agencies and airlines aren't.

"Nobody's making any money," she explained. "The name of the game for anybody in the travel business right now is working twice as hard for half the money."

They work harder to handle mounds of paperwork and to find clients a convenient flight. Most of the flights with the best fares sold out fast, especially the ones departing in the daytime.

"People have to decide now if convenience or price is more important," she said. "They may get their flight to Orlando, but they might have to go at 3 in the morning."

Elizabeth Seesing, owner of West Park Travel Agency in Cape Girardeau, warns that the lower fares may spell financial disaster for the airlines that sell tickets at below cost.

"We're getting about 300 phone calls a day, and we can't get back to people," Seesing said. "We can't get through to the airlines and our computers are jammed. It's just crazy."

Because ticket prices are low, so are the commissions agencies make off ticket sales.

"Travel agencies work on a percentage of sales," she said. "When you're selling $100 tickets, it costs more to make the sale than what you're going to make on it."

But the airlines will likely take a worse fall than travel agencies, Seesing predicted.

"With the exception of the overtime and the wear and tear on us mentally and physically, it's not going to be as hard on us financially as it is the airlines," she said.

"I'm afraid they're going to book all their flights and no one will buy tickets for the rest of the summer."

That will mean a slow summer for travel agencies, she said.

"I think there are a lot of people who were not planning on traveling this year until they heard about the airfares," she said.

"And for the most part, we'll never see them again after this week. So we're not even building any repeat business. It's just hectic."

Hill said the lower fares are an attempt to re-establish a fading market. Air travel was down last year because of the recession, he said.

"It's just an attempt to get people back on planes," he said.

Rosemary Logan, an agent at Destinations Unlimited, said she can't recall a time she's been busier.

"I've been a travel agent for years and years and I've never seen anything like this," she said. "I'd like to book a trip for myself but I don't have time."