American Airlines, Northwest Airlines, America West and JetBlue Airways on Friday said they raised ticket prices in various markets, seeking to recoup some of their increased costs from record fuel prices.
The fare increases follow similar moves by rivals including Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Continental Airlines, which began raising fares on Wednesday.
Most carriers said they raised fares to help mitigate the impact of soaring fuel costs. Crude oil futures added to recent gains on Friday, notching a fresh record above USD$66 a barrel.
"It had to happen," said Terry Trippler, airline expert at Cheapseats.com. "The price of crude oil is out of line obviously. Unfortunately the (fare) increases are not enough to cover what has occurred, and we can expect more increase as early as next week."
The airline industry has been struggling to contain surging fuel costs, which have overtaken labor costs as the biggest expense for some airlines. And low-cost competition has made it difficult for airlines to pass along the expense to travelers.
American increased fares on a range of domestic routes, with increases mostly ranging from USD$5 to USD$10 each way, spokesman Tim Smith said on Friday. American raised its fares on Thursday.
Northwest said it matched its rivals fare hikes on Friday and has broadened its increases to match price caps of USD$599 and USD$699 by a key rival on some routes.
Discount carrier JetBlue raised fares by USD$5 on flights to and from Florida and on some transcontinental flights, spokeswoman Jenny Dervin said. JetBlue's fare increase took effect from Thursday.
American West said it had matched Delta's fare increase of USD$10 each way.
The higher ticket prices did little to help the beleaguered industry's shares, as analysts say carriers face billions of dollars in losses at best and more bankruptcies at worst.
United and US Airways are already operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors.
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