As I reviewed Tuesdays airfare filing activity, a vivid image popped into my head: it was Robert Duvall in a large Air Calvary Stetson, with helicopters beating and flak all around, saying: “I love the smell of an airfare sale in the morning!” Yes, what is not to love! Both Southwest and AirTran (unbeknownst to each other) launched simultaneous airfare sales yesterday (Tuesday) for travel into the summer and beyond (AirTran’s sale actually goes into November). Your favorite flights are now on sale and the one thing you can depend on with airlines in this recession — no one is going to be undercut. All day long, the legacy airlines have been firing out waves of matching airfares. Here are the highlights from Tuesday’s 10am, 12:30pm and 8pm airfare domestic airfare distributions: United Airlines Matched 7,000 city pairs with new lows (AirTran Airfare Sale) at 10:00am and 12:30pm Raised prices on Canadian cities they jockey for position (be careful out there, prices to Canada have been swinging $200 up and down for the past week, don’t get caught on that high side)

American Airlines

• They always take a very targeted approach, only matching 2,500 city pairs at 10:00am (AirTran match) and then matching some of the Southwest Sale at 12:30pm (only couple hundred city pairs, Houston the biggest)

• At 8pm over 70 cities to St. Croix dropped by an average of $83 roundtrip, also 78 cities to/from New York dropped by an average of $40 roundtrip in what could be a reaction to Southwest very aggressive airfares to Islip.

US Airways

• Matched the AirTran Sale at 10:00am in over 2,000 city pairs

• Continue to jockey with Canadian airfares at 8pm raising prices by over $200 in many cases (see the not above on United)

Delta / Northwest

• Heavy matching activity of the AirTran sale at 10:00am and 12:30 in over 3,500 combined city pairs

Continental

• Throughout the day in all three airfare feed Continental did some very measured matching in about 1,500 city pairs

Frontier

• Launched a major sale at 8pm and also had quite a few new lows at 12:30pm in matching response

• Washington, Portland and Spokane saw prices drop up to $200 roundtrip to many Frontier cities

Southwest Airlines

• Matched the AirTran sale prices in overlapping markets at 10:00am