Alaska Airlines lost $36 million for the first quarter, and U.S. Airways reported a $236 million loss this morning. That brings the industry tally to about $11.7 for the quarter.
Both airlines blamed the usual culprit - jet fuel prices.
Delta Air Lines, Continental, and US Airways have matched the $4-$30 roundtrip airfare increase launched by United Airlines Wednesday night, Rick Seaney of farecompare.com reports this morning.
That leaves American and Northwest Airlines as the only legacy carriers that haven't matched, although Northwest had a "smattering of what appears to be automated competitive matching," Seaney said.
Alaska Airlines ($12 on certain city pairs), Frontier Airlines ($8-$12 increase), and Midwest Airlines ($20 roundtrip increase) also matched to varying degrees.
"Northwest has been last to match in several of the increases this year so it is not surprising they have not made a move yet," Seaney said. "It will be interesting to see what American decides to do in the wake of this weeks PR nightmare."
He also noted, "again, I cannot stress enough that air travel consumers who have been on the fence about summer travel purchases lock in their tickets as soon as possible. If passengers buy now on American or Northwest they will likely save 5-15 percent on their purchase."
-- Scott Nishimura
United Airlines airfare increase last week -- the industry's first attempt of the year to hike prices -- "remains in place" as of Sunday evening, despite "some minor rollback activity" over the weekend, Rick Seaney of the farecompare.com tracking system says. A summary of how airlines responded to United's $10 roundtrip increase on trips of 1,500 miles or less, and $20 roundtrip on longer trips:
"Airlines continue to have off-peak sales (mostly for travel on Tuesday, Wednesday & Saturday) -- while increasing airfares for business travelers and those who travel at the most convenient times," Seaney said in an email.
"A strategy of lower closely yielded off-peak pricing and legacy airline capacity reductions, coupled with increases on the bulk of travelers who travel at more convenient times looks to be leaving some headroom for continued increases in the first quarter. I would not be surprised to see a few more increases in the coming weeks if fuel prices stay at their current level."
-- Scott Nishimura
Major carriers matched United Airlines' fare increase over the holiday weekend for the most part, bumping up domestic fares by $5 each way and $10 roundtrip, Rick Seaney of the farecompare.com tracker said Wednesday.
Thursday night, United launched the fare increase. Here's Seaney's summary of how other airlines responded over the weekend (all times Central):
"As 2007 draws to a close – airlines continue to file targeted off-peak winter travel airfare sales – while simultaneously raising the bulk of airline ticket prices on their route systems incrementally," Seaney said in an email.
Since Labor Day weekend, the airlines have had nine "significantly sticky increases," Seaney said, using the jargon of farecompare's fare increase "stickiness" scale. The airlines have launched 11 increases, and all but two stuck, he said.
It appears domestic airfares will finish up the year at a record high since FareCompare.com began tracking them over three and a half years ago," he said. "The previous high was recorded in the summer of 2006 after a wave of airfare increases in the late Spring/early summer last year."
"Airfare prices for 2008 are now in uncharted waters and it will be interesting to see how they react in early January, which typically marks the start of increased consumer shopping and purchasing activity that builds up to a crest in the late Spring," he said.
-- Scott Nishimura
Airfare activity on Monday was "very volatile" as carriers continued to react to last Thursday's airfare hike by Continental, the farecompare.com tracking service said just before midnight Monday.
"After three airfare distributions today (10 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. EDT), the $10 roundtrip increase initiated by Continental late last Thursday continues to remain “sticky",” farecompare's Rick Seaney said in a release. The domestic airfare change activity today was very volatile, as both JetBlue and AirTran fired out substantial airfare sales in the midst of the legacy airlines jockeying for market position related to the sixth airfare increase since Labor Day."
"It will be interesting to see how the legacy airlines react to these two domestic airfare sales," Seaney said. "Delta has the most exposure to the AirTran sale, while JetBlue city pairs are spread more evenly across several competing airlines."
Seaney posted more detailed info about the fare sales in his blog, http://rickseaney.com.
"The increase looks to be firmly entrenched, and most likely these new airfare sales from JetBlue and AirTran will be strategically matched in highly competitive overlap markets without posing much of a threat to the broader increase," Seaney said.
-- Scott
Here's the latest from Rick Seaney at farecompare.com on how United Airlines' competitors are responding to the carrier's $10-$20 roundtrip fare increase:
In the 10:30 a.m. Eastern airfare distribution today:
Northwest Airlines started matching the increase on over (11,000) city pairs
American Airlines added a few more matching city pairs (200)
Alaska Airlines added a few more matching city pairs (180)
United Airlines rolled back on a few city pairs (200)
US Airways rolled back on a few city pairs (200)
In the 12:30pm EDT airfare distribution activity included:
American Airlines added a few more matching city pairs (240)
Alaska Airlines added a few more matching city pairs (190)
Delta Air Lines added several more matching city pairs (1,100)
United Airlines added a few more matching city pairs (180)
US Airways added several more matching city pairs (1,900)
We continue to see no significant activity from either JetBlue or AirTran up to this point.
The only other significant activity is United Airlines raising airfares to Hawaii (all cities) by $34 roundtrip (1,500 city pairs). In the past week there has been a lot of activity on Hawaiian routes started by a United Increase (Oct. 11th, $20-25 roundtrip).
-- Scott
Over the weekend and continuing through late this morning, it looks like most of the legacy airlines are matching American Airlines, which raised round trip air fares last Thursday by $10 for most domestic destinations within the 48 contiguous states.
Alaska, Continental, Delta, Northwest, United and US Airways all had minor to full air fare increases, meaning anywhere from 10 to 100 percent of their ticket prices rose by $10 for a round-trip ticket, according to FareCompare.com, a consumer air fare research site.
The last to join the fray was Northwest, when it jumped in Sunday evening with a partial match of the fare hike, meaning 35 to 75 percent of its fares went up by $10, according to FareCompare.
-David
The Seattle Times reports:
Alaska Air Group will test satellite-based wireless Internet access on an Alaska Airlines jet in hopes of offering in-flight Web and e-mail service to attract more customers.
The technology developed by closely held Row 44, a California company, will be installed on a Boeing 737 early next year, Seattle-based Alaska Air said in a statement.
Passengers with Wi-Fi-enabled devices will connect to the Internet through wireless hot spots inside the aircraft, linked to a satellite receiver on top of the plane, the company said. Alaska Air, the ninth-largest U.S. carrier, said it's been working with Row 44 on the system for two years.
-- Scott
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Alaska Airlines says it completed the check of its Boeing 737s, and didn't find the problem thought to have destroyed a China Airlines 737 recently.
-- Scott
The Wall Street Journal reports: For at least a decade, women have been steadily moving into airline staff jobs in the fields of government, media and human relations; law and finance; and oversight of flight attendants. But operations -- running the gamut from dispatchers to ramp workers to safety and de-icing -- until recently remained largely off limits. The shift is partly due to the airlines' lessening dependence on the military for recruits and a wave of retirements by men as the industry has gone through a series of bankruptcies.
-- Scott
(Colleen Barrett, Southwest Airlines)
