Southwest offering $30 one-way fares

July 08, 2009|Bloomberg News

DALLAS - Southwest Airlines Co., the largest discounter, led six other major US carriers in offering one-way fares as low as $30 to generate demand when the peak US travel season wanes in September.

The sale is Southwest’s biggest nationwide reduction in 13 years.

Delta Air Lines Inc., American Airlines, United Airlines, Continental Airlines Inc., JetBlue Airways Corp., and US Airways Group Inc. joined Southwest in offering sale prices yesterday and today for travel Sept. 9 through Nov. 18. The rates are $30 each way for flights as far as 400 miles, $60 for 400 to 750 miles, and $90 for more than 750 miles.

US air traffic declined in the first half of 2009 as businesses reduced travel in the recession.

“While airline ticket prices have stabilized recently from their free fall, airlines are by no means out of the woods as oil prices remain volatile and demand precarious,’’ Rick Seaney, chief executive officer of fare-shopping site Farecompare.com, said in an e-mail.

Delta, the world’s largest airline, number two No. 2 American, a unit of AMR Corp. and the other carriers matched the fares on competing routes, spokesmen said.

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