they took up to four years ago.

At present local airline offices believe that only Americans may be affected by a lawsuit which accused nine companies of collusion in setting ticket prices.

But it is possible that Bermudians could get discount coupons worth up to 10 percent of flight costs since 1988.

Millions of air travellers will get the discount coupons under the $458 million settlement approved by US District Judge Marvin H. Shoob on Monday.

The settlement covers an estimated 12 million passengers who flew on Delta, United, American, USAir, Pan Am, Continental and Midway, as well as Northwest and Trans World Airlines, which settled in 1991.

Airline Tariff Publishing Co., a computerised clearinghouse for air fares, also features in the settlement. Travellers who filed the class-action lawsuit accused the airlines of using ATP to alert competitors of their plans to raise fares.

Virtually anyone who bought tickets on any of nine airlines between January 1, 1988, and June 30, 1992, is eligible. Many will receive coupons good for discounts of up to 10 percent on future ticket purchases.

Both local American Airlines representative Ms Carolyn DeCouto and Delta Air Lines manager Ms Jackie Zuill said they did not know how the lawsuit applied to local residents.

But Ms DeCouto said: "I would suspect that because the decision was made in an American court it would not apply to people outside of the United States.'' However, she admitted that she believed the decision could be disastrous for the already ailing airlines.

"I think its atrocious,'' she added. "The industry has lost $18 billion, now they are doing this.

"They might as well get us to give all the seats away. We will be lucky to have 10 airlines left by the end of the decade.'' The airlines said they settled to avoid a long and expensive trial in America.

Mr. Ronald Allen, chief executive officer of Delta Airlines, said: "Rather than go through a protracted court case, we felt it better for the airlines and the traveling public to settle this early on. Obviously we've admitted no wrongdoing.'' Approving the settlement, the judge said: "Continued litigation would result in the largest anti-trust trial in history at great expense and drain on judicial resources.'' At the same time, he said the fliers who sued had little chance of winning.

And even if they did win, it was questionable whether they could have collected anything from the airlines, some of which are in shaky condition and would have been forced into bankruptcy.

The coupons will be interchangeable among a variety of airlines, regardless of which carrier the traveller originally used.

Three of the airlines -- Pan Am, Continental and Midway -- have either gone out of business or filed for bankruptcy protection. But people who flew on those airlines can get coupons on other airlines.

Lawyers in the case said distribution of the coupons should begin by mid-1994.

Those filing claims need only to state which flights they bought tickets for.

They are not required to provide documentation of their ticket purchases.

There will be spot audits in which claimants will be asked to present "reasonable back-up.'' An initial February 15 deadline for filing claims was extended to June 1.

Interested residents should write to Airline Anti-trust Litigation, PO Box 209, Philadelphia, PA 19107.