     |
Hard times keeps plane tickets low"PLANE TICKETS" Can't find what you need? Try a Google Web Search in the box below!
7/8/2001 "Jul. 8--As Greg Dobson sat staring out a window at Indianapolis International Airport ready to board yet another flight for business, his thoughts turned to beaches, sand, rippling waves and the cost of plane tickets." No, he hadn't planned on going to Florida this summer. But for $59 a ticket, he ponders, why not? "Oh yeah, I'd buy plane tickets just because there's a deal there," said Dobson, of Cleveland, Ga. In this environment, plane tickets -- once purchased after months of vacation planning -- have become impulse buys. Buy on a whim simply because a good deal is available, then figure out how to use them. It's a traveling strategy that cash-strapped airlines hope takes off, then soars. Airlines are facing their worst slump in almost a decade, with the eight biggest U.S. carriers collectively reporting their first quarterly loss since 1993. The flagging revenue is caused in part by high fuel costs, but mostly by a cooling economy that has caused businesses to slash corporate travel budgets. Looking to fill empty seats, airlines are swooping in to capture a larger share of another market -- leisure travelers -- by offering a variety of discounts on plane tickets. A surge of price-slashing for leisure travel has swept the industry in the past few weeks. Delta Air Lines came first on June 25, announcing major discounts on flights to leisure destinations, an additional 20 percent off for buying the sales fare through its Web site, and thousands of round-trip bonus miles that consumers can use later. The Web-based deal generated the company's greatest single week of sales ever. As of Thursday, 163,000 trips of plane tickets worth $43 million had been sold on delta.com. "This sale is a great opportunity for customers to travel this summer," said Delta spokeswoman Cindi Kurczewski, even if they hadn't planned it. "Get out there, and see the world." Other major carriers quickly followed Delta's lead. All of the deals have fine print and depend on when consumers fly, where they fly and how far in advance they book the plane tickets. But the bottom line is: There are deals to be had. Great deals. Take ATA, the latest to enter the cheap airfares wars, which announced Thursday its Florida Super Sales: Fly nonstop from Indianapolis to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando, St. Petersburg or Sarasota for as little as $59 one-way. Book online and save an additional $10 off a round trip. That's $110 for plane tickets to Florida, a price that in some instances could rival the cost for gasoline to drive there. "Of course, (the reason) is always for the consumer," said Angela Thomas, spokeswoman for ATA. While airlines contend it's all about giving customers a great deal, investors say airlines are suffering. Deprived of business passengers who pay as much as 10 times more than economy travelers, they are being forced to make up for the loss elsewhere. Merrill Lynch predicts that in 2001, U.S. carriers will have a total loss of $595 million. "I can't remember such a precipitous drop in traffic, particularly business traffic, in all my years in the business," AMR Corp. Chief Executive Don Carty told a U.S. House transportation committee in June. An estimated 54 percent of companies have cut travel budgets in some way in the past six months, according to a survey by Runzheimer International, which questioned corporate travel managers on the effects of the slowing economy. Of those: -- 96 percent said fewer trips with plane tickets are being taken. -- 64 percent said conferences are being canceled. -- 36 percent said first-class plane tickets travel no longer is allowed. -- 28 percent said all travelers must fly coach. Can't find what you need? Try a Google Web Search in the box below!
Most recent counts show that, on average, 73 percent of plane seats are filled each flight. It was OK to have that 27 percent vacancy rate before, said Rolfe Shellenberger, senior consultant for Runzheimer International. "As long as the business traveler is paying through the nose, then the airlines will have high yields," he said. But with business travelers making fewer flights, airlines will have to make up in quantity what they aren't getting in returns per flight, he said. "The leisure travel market is filling all the empty seats on the airplane and -- now -- there is a ready market for cheap flights seats," he said. Southwest is set to profit. The airline, known for its low airfares, is reeling in customers who typically fly other carriers. "When the economy takes a downturn, we tend to pick up other (airlines') people, so we decided to give customers another break," said Whitney Brewer, Southwest spokeswoman. The latest offer from Southwest: fly from Indianapolis to Florida for $59 each way. Those airfares are available for purchase through July 16 for travel Aug. 13 through Sept. 30. Also through July 16, Southwest is offering $39 to $99 one-way airfares to certain destinations from Indianapolis. Those cheap airfares are available Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays for travel from July 5 through Dec. 8. The key to that deal lies in the future -- getting commitments from travelers now to fly with the airline six months down the road. That could cushion the bottom line for airlines at a time when school is back in session and vacationing drops off, said Susie Butz, leisure travel manager for Allen Travel. "We're going to start into a season right after the kids go back to school in the fall, which is not a particularly good time for leisure plane tickets travel," she said. "They're trying to lure people into those off-peak times." But the latest fare deals haven't jump-started business at Allen, Butz said. "It stays pretty status quo." Part of the reason could be that the cost of driving has decreased along with air fares. People who once thought high prices at the pump made flying cheaper may now choose to drive. That may be another reason airlines are moving quickly to cut plane tickets prices, said Diane Swonk, chief economist with Bank One. "Plus, their gas prices have come down a bit now, and they have the opportunity to go ahead and offer (savings) to customers," she said. When it comes to travel, people typically aren't loyal to a single mode, and when it comes to airlines they often don't have a favorite carrier. They commonly check for the lowest plane tickets, then go with that airline. Louie Morales stood in line last week at the Delta counter, displeased that his US Airways flight to New York City had been canceled. But he had no concerns flying Delta as long as he could get out of here, he said. "I don't care about Delta. I'm just running from US Airways," he said. Morales and his family, including his wife, Charlene, and children Zariaun, 18 months, and Charlene's son, Koraun Doss, 13, were set to visit family in New York. They hadn't heard about some of the plane tickets deals available for destinations such as Florida and Las Vegas, but Charlene Morales said it wouldn't take much to lure her to plan a vacation around a cheap plane ticket. "Definitely. I'll pay attention," she said, and it doesn't matter which airline. In Indianapolis, the most popular carrier is US Airways, followed by Northwest, ATA, Southwest, then Delta, said Steve Follis, acting spokesman for BAA Indianapolis, the company that manages the airport. The hottest time of year to travel is March -- around spring break -- and June, during the peak of family vacation season, he said. Can't find what you need? Try a Google Web Search in the box below!
The lower plane tickets may entice people to plan travel at off-peak times, but Follis warns to read the fine print. Not all of the rates apply to all locations or all dates. "There are selected destinations, and it's not across the board," he said. Pirjo Westhues, a travel agent at Columbus Travel Downtown, adds another warning. Sometimes, she said, airlines will cut their airfares after they have jacked them up the day before, so what fliers get is no savings at all. "Cutting the rates, I think it's just kind of a joke." Westhues doesn't discourage flying, but said to be alert. "Fares are day by day," she said. "It's a different situation every time you look, and actually changes sometimes by the hour. It keeps you on your toes."...... Compare prices on plane tickets here /cheap airfares home |