Industry watchers say cheap flights are still available

Posted 7:59AM on Monday 18th March 2002 ( 23 years ago )

Six months after the Sept. 11 hijackings, dirt-cheap seats on flights are scarcer - but still available to travelers patient enough to wait for fare sales. Those who monitor airfares say inexpensive fares may be harder to find by summer, when more people might be willing to brave airports in the quest for relaxation. "You're going to continue to see pockets and pockets of sales," said Tom Parsons, CEO of Bestfares.com. "You just have to be patient and keep in mind where you want to go." Even as airline customers adjust to fees of up to $10 round-trip to pay for the new Transportation Security Administration, some sense of normalcy is returning to air travel. Travelers are adjusting - although grudgingly - to "wandings" by airline security personnel. And Washington's Reagan National Airport, which was temporarily closed as a result of Sept. 11 and then offered reduced service, will be offering near-normal service levels next month. According to the Air Transport Association, a trade group, airlines are still suffering, but less so with each passing month. While the industry saw 34 percent fewer passengers in September 2001 than the previous September, only 12.5 percent fewer people boarded planes in February 2002 than February 2001. That organization also found that domestic airfares in January were down 16 percent over the previous January. "People are in the air," said Terry Trippler, a Minneapolis-based consultant. "What we're finding happening now is the post-Sept. 11 fear factor has pretty much dissipated and the hassle factor was there for awhile." That "hassle factor," Trippler said, dissipated largely because of efforts by the Transportation Security Administration to make increased security measures less of an inconvenience. As more people resume traveling, airlines are trying to boost fares to pay for the cost of doing business since the attacks. Right after Sept. 11, airlines clamored for passengers, lowering fares. But by January, airlines had a big problem - they couldn't afford to keep operating at such low rates. "We were seeing dirt-cheap airfares up until Jan. 15," Parsons said. "Now many have skyrocketed." International flights have gotten more expensive. However, many domestic flights remain bargains - largely because of low-cost airlines, such as Southwest, Spirit and JetBlue, forcing lower prices on major competitors. If one of the lower-cost carriers had a sale, Trippler said, the move could kill one of the more high-priced airlines. "They could go for the kill, they really could," he said. Brandy King, a spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines, said the airline launched aggressive fare sales immediately after Sept. 11 to spur travelers to hit the air. As a result, the airline did not suffer as much as many competitors. Southwest continued having sales during January, February, March - the natural low point for air travel. The airline's business lags slightly behind last year's. During January and February last year, 64.4 percent of seats were filled on Southwest. This year, so far, that number has dipped to 59 percent. While leisure travelers continue to fly, business travelers have yet to return to the skies in full force, according to Cathy Keefe of the Travel Industry Association. She said business travel typically picks up between three and six months after the economy leaves a recession. Parsons said business travelers aren't just remaining grounded because of the tight economy - many stay put due to security inconveniences. Those travelers - who often dish out $1,000 for tickets - are where many airlines make money, he said. Aviation consultant Michael Boyd, president of the Boyd Group in Colorado, said airfares can't drop too much - airlines are bleeding money as it is. "It won't be so much that fares will go up, per se, but the availability of low fares will go down," he said. "Instead of 50 low-fare seats, a plane might have 25. Instead of a three-day purchase for advanced fare, it may be a seven-day advance purchase." Keefe said good prices can be found - they're just not always as low as they were right after Sept. 11. "I think you can still find great fares out there," she said. "But the onus is on the consumer now to find them."

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/3/197294