Airlines, Airfare Hike | featured news

The airline business is transforming into a profitable industry, thanks to fewer flights and higher fares. Mergers have helped bring rationality to the market, Smisek told an aviation conference Thursday. For far too long, he said, too many airlines were chasing too few passengers.

Airlines are once again trying to get business travelers to pay more for their last-minute trips. For the fifth time this year, airlines are trying to raise fares, says Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com, which tracks fares. The previous three attempts focused on tickets purchased within seven days of travel, which are typically most popular among business travelers.

Just four days into the new year, United Airlines launched the first attempted airfare increase of 2013. The move is in line with travel experts' predictions that fliers, in general, will face a tougher atmosphere this year.

Heads up, travelers. For the sixth time this year, an attempt is underway to bump up airfares.

The nation's airlines have failed the last few times they tried to raise fares, but they're not giving up.

Last week, I wrote about the relationship between fuel prices and airfare increases, and many of you balked, saying that fuel hedging keeps airlines from paying more for fuel. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.

United Continental Holdings Inc., the world's biggest airline
company, scrapped its 2011 growth plans on Monday and said it will
cut unprofitable routes because of rising fuel prices.

Rising fuel prices have forced Southwest Airlines to raise ticket prices, but the Dallas-based carrier is also focusing on efficiency measures to lower its fuel consumption, president and CEO Gary Kelly said Monday.

The most recent attempt by U.S. airlines to boost fares has been cut in half by pressure from discount carriers. Last week, the big network carriers including United, Continental, Delta and American raised many domestic fares by $20 a round trip. By Monday afternoon, the increase had been cut to $10.