By: Mike Fridgen, VP Marketing & Product
Welcome to this week’s Farecast Fare View, an inside view into the news making headlines this week and the latest record low airfare deals. Key takeaway this week is that lower fares may be on the horizon, particularly on west coast routes, due to flatter demand and increased competition.
In the News This Week
Alaska Air sees weaker demand, vows to protect turf – In addition to weaker demand, Alaska Air anticipates competitive pressure from a leaner Delta Air Lines, Southwest, and soon to emerge startups on key West Coast routes (see Virgin America DOT approval). CEO Bill Ayer said the company “will do whatever it takes” to preserve its regional dominance. This combination of factors - weaker demand, increased competition, steady capacity – could spell lower fares for west coast fliers.
Delta Emerges from Bankruptcy - Delta is exiting bankruptcy amid early indications of softening demand for domestic U.S. air travel, Reuters reports. An interesting note is that Delta chief executive, Gerald Grinstein, has refused to take any extra cash, stock awards, stock options or a pay raise. In fact, he cut his salary in half during the carrier’s bankruptcy proceedings, to $338,000 a year, among the lowest for any major U.S. corporation (according to a recent LA Times article). Responsible move, given that a top grievance of bankrupt airline workers’ is management compensation and stock-based pay.
Low Cost Airline SkyBus to debut in May - New low cost carrier, SkyBus will be commencing service on May 22 and will be based out of Columbus, Ohio. The New York Times and USA Today discuss the potential impact of new “ultra low” cost carriers on domestic fares. We will be watching fares closely to see the overall impact on prices.
Record Low Fares
Each day, Farecast shows you real deals backed by comparisons against millions of airfares the company has analyzed from each airport. These deals are updated often, so act fast. Here are some of the record low fares we’ve found today:
San Francisco (SFO) to Palm Springs (PSP) (Thu 5/17 - Sun 5/20) $131
Orange County (SNA) to Oakland (OAK) (Sat 5/12 - Mon 5/14) $91
Newark (EWR) to Orange County (SNA) (Wed 5/23 - Wed 5/30) $240
I love the site. One thing I’d love to see: best fares from city XXX to international. I want to leave the states, don’t care where, dont care when. What’s my best option? That’d be fun to waste an hour on.
Same idea as Greg’s but for domestic flights. I have employees all over the country and when I have a need for some of them in a particular destination, it would be great to know which cities offered the cheapest flights into that destination.