lowering the cost of full-price tickets and eliminating dozens of categories.

The changes take place on Monday and will see American's fares between Bermuda and New York drop an average of five percent, local manager Mrs. Carol DeCouto said.

But American's fares within the US will drop much more, with first class tickets falling 20-50 percent, and unrestricted coach fares going down at least 38 percent.

All special discounts will be scrapped. There will be just four types of tickets: First class, an "Anytime'' fare, a seven-day advance purchase and a 21-day advance purchase.

The only remaining business class route will be between New York and Los Angeles.

As a result, Mrs. DeCouto said, the number of different American Airlines fares will be reduced from more than 500,000 to about 70,000.

"On some routes we had as many as 30 or 40 different airfares,'' she said.

"Now there are just four. We hope other airlines follow our lead, because airfares have become so complicated everywhere. And it costs the airline money too, when you have over 500,000 airfares to administer.'' And she said the changes are also meant to be more fair. Among other complaints, she said: "I think the business community really felt they were supporting the entire aircraft with their airfares.'' Mrs. DeCouto said the changes were designed mainly for the US, and noted that US airlines completed a major restructuring of fares to Bermuda and the Caribbean late last year.

But Bermudians will enjoy some price drops, even though the new fare structure and fare conditions make it difficult to accurately compare some of them.

For instance, the cheapest midweek round trip fare will drop from $288 to $276 and the cheapest weekend fare will drop from $365 to $316. Unrestricted coach fares will go from $372 to $355, while one-way first class tickets will go from $216 to $205.

Gains will be greater to those travelling beyond New York, however. The regular full coach fare from New York to Chicago would drop from $427 to $240, for instance, while the price of a flight from Dallas to Boston would drop from $655 to $380 each way.

First class and "Anytime'' fares are refundable; lower price advance purchase tickets can be re-ticketed for a $25 fee.

In the US, American chairman Mr. Robert L. Crandall said the company was motivated in part by a growing public anger at the industry's complex system for figuring fares.

"The system quite simply is broke,'' Mr. Crandall said at a New York Press conference. "To have the future we want -- for our customers, our shareholders and our employees -- we must fix it.'' Airline analysts in the US said American's goal appeared to be to increase the average price paid by people who fly.

The pointed out that on many routes, more than 90 percent of passengers paid discounted fares. So the airline could well profit by eliminating discounts, even if it substantially reduced regular fares.