Thursday evening in the 8:00pm EST domestic U.S. airfare distribution the FareCompare.com proprietary airfare processing system noted significant system wide increase activity by United Airlines. United Airlines has increased airfares on their entire route system by $5 one-way ($10 roundtrip) for flights less than 1,500 miles and $10 one-way ($20 roundtrip) for flights over 1,500 miles across both leisure and business (less than 14 days advance purchase) airfares…

As a point of reference the distance between Chicago and Las Vegas is approximately 1,520 miles (raised by $10 one-way, $20 roundtrip)…

This increase occurs amidst almost 2 full days of significant airfare sales for U.S. domestic winter travel on both legacy and lower cost airlines including United.

Thursday nights at 8:00pm EST has been the favorite choice of airlines for increases the past few years and tonight was no exception - in addition to United’s increase the following significant activity occurred:

• AirTran Airways raised airfares by $5 one-way, $10 roundtrip
• Air Canada raised airfares by $10 to $30 roundtrip for travel between the U.S. and Canada
• Midwest Airlines raised airfares by $5 one-way, $10 roundtrip
• Northwest Airlines launched a significant winter airfare sale

In 2007 we documented a record 17 successful out of 23 attempted system wide airfare increases (full detail at this link).

Unfortunately for travelers in 2008 this increase is most likely going to be matched quickly and will probably be the first in a continued wave of increases spurred by the rising cost of fuel coupled with a continued reduction in U.S. domestic seat supply.

For those interested in a deeper background — I have also posted my rather gloomy air travel forecast for 2008 and a chart showing jet fuel price history.