The way it was reported on the news was............


Plane tickets are expected to become substantially cheaper as ticket sale rules are relaxed from this weekend.

Travel agents in one country will be allowed to issue tickets in another, the international body which regulates air fares, IATA, has decided.

In many cases, buying two single tickets to and from one destination will be cheaper than a return ticket.

First-class and business travellers will save the most, with economy travellers not seeing much difference.

That is because the rise and rise of low-cost airlines has already made economy fares in Britain among the cheapest in the world.



The liberalisation of the rules, which should knock several hundred pounds off the price of many tickets, has been prompted by the growing volume of ticket sales on the internet.

Undercut

IATA has acknowledged that in the internet age, identifying the country in which customers book their tickets online is almost impossible.

It has therefore decided that air fares should no longer be based on the country of sale.

Until now, travel agents in one country could not issue tickets in another, even though that would have meant savings for their customers, simply because people usually pay less for tickets issued in their own countries.

To ensure that passengers would not undercut the price of a return trip, one-way fares from their destination back home would never be less than the fare in the reverse direction.

By apping this rule, IATA has effectively allowed the price of a one-way business class ticket from Hong Kong to London to fall from £2,600 to £1,900, fare experts say.

Similarly, a business one-way ticket from Sao Paulo, Brazil, to London will drop from £3,300 to £1,300.

Flights starting and ending in cities outside the country where the booking was made will become cheaper, too.

The new rules will not apply to flights to, from or via Japan.

It looks like First and business class will save the most.