May 26 (Bloomberg) -- Qantas Airways Ltd., battling falling sales in business and first class, joined Singapore Airlines Ltd. in charging passengers more for the extra leg room offered in exit row seats.

Australia’s biggest carrier, which is forecasting a record second-half loss, said it will charge an additional A$80 ($62) to A$160 per ticket for economy-class passengers on international routes depending on the length of the flight. The charges will start next month with frequent flyers able to use their points for the seats, Sydney-based Qantas said in an e- mailed statement today.

Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce is seeking to raise revenue as the airline expects a second-half loss of as much as A$188 million. The 42-year old, who is using a strategy implemented while running Qantas’s discount carrier Jetstar, risks angering customers by charging for a service they used to get for free, according to analyst Stephen Downes.

“It raises the risk customers see it as exploitative, just a revenue grab,” said Downes, a lecturer in marketing at RMIT University in Melbourne. “They know it doesn’t cost any more to have people sitting there.”

Singapore Airlines, the world’s biggest by market value, last November gave customers a choice to secure seats at the exit row for a fee of $50 per sector. The move may help Singapore Air, which gets about 40 percent of its revenue from premium travelers, at a time when carriers globally face declining demand for air travel amid a global recession.

Japan Air, Cathay Pacific

Japan Airlines Corp., Asia’s largest carrier by sales, doesn’t charge extra fees for the seats, said spokesman Taro Namba. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Hong Kong’s biggest carrier, also doesn’t charge extra for legroom and has no plans to do so, Thomas Lau, a spokesman for airline, said today.

Qantas shares rose 2 cents, or 1 percent, to A$1.92 at the 4:10 p.m. market close in Sydney, paring this year’s decline to 27 percent. The company is the worst-performing airline stock this year in the developed Asia-Pacific region.

Jetstar, which is targeting 10 percent of sales from non- ticket revenue, has 24 extra leg-room seats on its Airbus SAS A330 planes which carry 303 passengers.

The seats are typically located in the front row of the cabin, at over-wing exits or adjacent to bulkheads. Qantas restricts the seats to passengers at least 15 years old and able to lift a 15 kilogram exit door in an emergency.

Premium Seats

Qantas’ premium seat sales, such as those in first and business class, have plunged about 30 percent as companies force executives to fly coach or stay at home, Joyce said in a April 24 interview.

Airlines’ revenue from international first- and business- class tickets fell by as much as 40 percent in the first quarter as the recession prompted carriers to cut fares, the International Air Transport Association said this month.

Qantas has stopped first-class sales on some routes such as those between Sydney and San Francisco although it isn’t removing the seats. Passengers will be upgraded to a higher cabin seat with the catering and service of the class they booked.

“We will monitor the demand on these routes carefully and aim to reintroduce our first-class offering as soon as possible,” it said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Fenner in Melbourne rfenner@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 26, 2009 04:36 EDT