Agents offered airline incentives

o £100 cash incentives for premium-class bookings across the Atlantic in a desperate attempt by airlines to revive their business.

Capacity cuts prompted by a slump in transatlantic traffic following the US terrorist attacks have forced carriers to adopt what is thought to be the biggest-ever individual incentive programme directed through the trade.

Delta is giving selected business travel agents and consolidators £100 for each round-trip BusinessElite booking on the daily Gatwick to Boston service. Its daily Atlanta flights from Gatwick and Manchester and Gatwick to Cincinnati service could be included in the scheme, which runs until the end of the year.

Continental Airlines is handing out £50 in capital bonds vouchers to every agent booking a round-trip BusinessFirst ticket on its Newark flights from Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham as well as its Gatwick-Houston services.