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Well, we had about a month of silence on the airfare-hike front. But that’s over. Last night, Northwest Airlines increased domestic airfares by $80 roundtrip on over 4,000 city pairs. We’ll call this a mini-hike, in that it does not quite reach our threshold of two-thirds of a legacy carrier’s route system — which means I will not list this as the 22nd attempted hike of the year (not yet, anyway). But what is noteworthy, is that this is the FIRST time Northwest has initiated an airfare hike this year. So why the long break from airfare hikes? Keep reading… |
Yes, we’ve had that “long silence” on rate hikes most of this summer — why? Partly because oil has dropped below $130 a barrel, partly because the airlines have added a slew of new fees, and partly, as Southwest CEO Gary Kelly put it:
“We have some evidence…in the industry with our competitors where they feel like they’ve pushed fares too fast.” — Southwest’s Gary Kelly
We’ll be watching this, and will update as needed.
Meanwhile, check out our Airfare Hike Timeline for this year — just click here.
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