Last Thursday night, December 20, 2007, United Airlines increased the bulk of the airfares on its domestic route system by $5 each-way ($10 roundtrip). In turn over the weekend, each of the major legacy airlines has matched the United Airlines attempted increase — the time line for matching is shown below:

• Thursday December 20, 2007 - 8:00pm EST - United Airlines attempted increase
• Friday December 21, 2007 - 10:00am EST - Delta Air Lines full match
• Friday December 21, 2007 - 8:00pm EST - American Airlines minor match (15%)
• Friday December 21, 2007 - 8:00pm EST - Continental Airlines full match
• Friday December 21, 2007 - 8:00pm EST - US Airways full match
• Saturday, December 22, 2007 - 5:00pm EST - American Airlines full match
• Saturday, December 22, 2007 - 5:00pm EST - Northwest Airlines full match
• Monday December 24, 2007 - 12:30pm EST - United Airlines minor rollback (less than 10%)
• Monday December 24, 2007 - 8:00pm EST - Alaska Airlines full match
• Monday December 24, 2007 - 8:00pm EST - Delta Air Lines minor rollback (less than 6%)

As 2007 draws to a close - airlines continue to file targeted off-peak winter travel airfare sales (outside of Presidents Day weekend) - while simultaneously raising the bulk of airline ticket prices on their route systems incrementally with 9 significantly sticky increases since labor day weekend (11 attempts, 2 failures since labor day weekend).

It appears domestic airfares will finish up the year at a record high since FareCompare.com began tracking them over 3 years ago.

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.