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.
In the News This Week
TIA/AAA Summer Travel Study Travel Weekly reports on a survey released this week by the Travel Industry Association (TIA) and AAA, citing that consumers are expected to go forward with their vacation plans this summer, despite higher than usual gas prices and increases in hotel room rates. According to the report ,the TIA and AAA project a slight 1.4% hike in leisure travel during June, July and August compared to same time last year. It also mentions that with the start of the summer travel season on the horizon, air fares are expected to remain flat. We projected a few weeks ago that a combination of factors - weaker demand, increased competition, steady capacity – could spell lower fares. Read more about it.
United Airlines to trim domestic capacity in 2007 The Associated Press reported this week that United Airlines said it will trim its 2007 mainline domestic capacity by up to 3% from prior-year levels as it adjusts to flagging growth in domestic traffic. “Given the domestic market’s slow revenue growth and excess capacity, we believe that removing marginal domestic capacity is the appropriate response,” Chief Revenue Officer John Tague said in a statement. The story also cites that “Analysts recently have said the airline industry would do well to cut back on domestic capacity, as results have begun to sputter. By limiting the number of available seats, the industry can boost its unit revenue and gain more pricing power.” We at Farecast are monitoring these factors closely and will report on the impact on pricing.
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 Los Angeles (LAX) (Sat 5/26 - Tue 5/29) $75
Newark (EWR) to Orlando (MCO) (Sun 5/27 - Thu 5/31) $149
Chicago (ORD) to San Antonio (SAT) (Sat 6/2 - Mon 6/4) $117
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