Fall Air Fares Reviewed

Posted by Don Pappas on July 25th, 2008 at 10:23pm

JetBlue introduced complimentary in-flight e-mail and instant messaging services on aircraft “BetaBlue,” a first among U.S. JetBlue is also America’s first and only airline to offer its own Customer Bill of Rights, with meaningful and specific compensation for customers inconvenienced by service disruptions within JetBlue’s control. Some airlines have canceled long distance flights and are cutting down maintenance costs. The flight purser on my US Airways flight from Philadelphia to Milan announced the name of the movie that would be screened and offered to provide us headphones for $5 or 5 euros. That did not make sense on two levels.

It will instead cut frequency, or the number of daily flights, on selected routes. Instead, last month United and Continental announced an alliance in which they will sell tickets for each others’ flights. The key to this argument is so-called generated user benefits, which estimate the value of flights that are created by extra runway capacity and are valued at ?9bn. Without their contribution, the SEI report states, the costs of expansion would outweigh the benefits.

Southwest, which together with US Airways carries more than 3 out of 4 passengers at Sky Harbor International Airport, is also trimming flights, though modestly. It’s been crazy the past two years, trying to get seats and then flying on full flights, especially when you have to fly cattle class. Now you can actually get an empty seat next to you. Anything that reduces overall flights and seats benefits the whole industry and allows all airlines to raise fares, Kirby said.

US Airways last month more than doubled its planned flight cutbacks in the United States, to between 6 and 8 percent in the fourth quarter and about 8 to 10 percent in 2009. In Phoenix, one of its largest hubs, the cutbacks will be 10 percent. US Airways will stop showing in-flight movies on its domestic flights, a move that the carrier says will save it “about $10 million a year in fuel and other costs,” according to Bloomberg News. That, coupled with a drop in the number of customers willing to pay $5 for headsets, led to the airline’s decision, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Now the cheapest Columbus roundtrip flight on average costs twice as much as it did - on average $132 more - a year ago. The second-highest increase was between Boston and Philadelphia: The average lowest roundtrip airfare shot up 98 percent - on average $132 more, according to Farecast.

But with this fall’s unprecedented flight cutbacks, that time has increased to at least two weeks. Because if you have to take the refund, the two-week window for advance purchases will still be open. The number of weekly flights from the airport will fall 14 percent from 1,860 to 1,600. It said the reduction will decrease the number of passengers it carries from the airport by about 900,000 compared with last winter. Despite the cutbacks, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines soon will add two flights from Sioux Falls to beef up their presence in the business travel market. Airlines are eying that segment in an effort to sell more profitable fares.

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