Over the weekend all the major legacy airlines and a few other smaller airlines matched the $10 roundtrip domestic airfare increase initiated by Delta Air Lines at noon this past Thursday. A rundown of matched city pairs with the $10 roundtrip airfare hike as of 5pm Sunday night include: American Airlines - 7,400 city pairs Air Canada - 5,550 city pairs Alaska Airlines - 1,400 city pairs JetBlue - 75 city pairs (business travelers only) Continental Airlines - 10,000 city pairs Delta Air Lines - 16,000 city pairs AirTran Airways - 1,100 city pairs Northwest Airlines - 19,000 city pairs United Airlines - 14,500 city pairs US Airways - 7,000 city pairs Midwest Airlines - 60 city pairs (walkup airfare only) This increase marks the 6th this year with four to this point being significantly “sticky”…

This past week jet fuel prices were nearing the magic number of $3 per gallon compared to $1.85 a gallon at the same time period last year - a 60% increase.

If this trend in fuel prices continues we will probably see at least 2 airfare increases a month in a similar pattern as 2007 - legacy airlines will have no choice but to continue to raise airline ticket prices or dramatically cut back capacity.

Lower cost airlines have been sitting on the sidelines for many of the increases, but signs from AirTran and JetBlue on this increase show that even the lower operating cost airlines have no choice but to join into the airfare hikes.

Higher airline ticket prices and looming economic issues have yet to slow air travel demand - which continues to remain firm. If demand begins to wane air travelers could be in for some serious sticker shock in the latter half of 2008.

I will continue update over the next few days as any significant rollback activity occurs related to this fully matched increase.