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TMCNet: Costlier from here: Some flight costs double in a year

[June 06, 2008]

Costlier from here: Some flight costs double in a year

(Beaver County Times (PA) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jun. 6--Hope you don't have to fly from Pittsburgh International Airport to Houston next month.

If you do, your round-trip airfare will be 132 percent higher than it was in July 2007, according to a report released Thursday by the Web site BestFares.com.

The report listed 16 nonstop routes for which round-trip fares have more than doubled between July 2007 and this July, thanks in large part to the 13 fare increases that airlines have initiated since December on routes where they have little or no competition from other carriers.

Pittsburgh had two of the routes -- the Continental Airlines-operated one between here and Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, and a US Airways-operated route between here and Boston's Logan International Airport.

The cheapest round-trip airfare for US Airways' Boston flight jumped from $98 on July 22, 2007, to $238 this coming July 22. That 143 percent increase was the 13th-highest on BestFare.com's list.

An online search Thursday showed that fliers would be able to nab a $221.40 round-trip fare on a JetBlue Airways flight to Boston on July 22. But JetBlue offers just one to two daily flights to Boston versus six daily flights by US Airways.

Continental's best round-trip fare to Houston was $198 on July 22, 2007, compared with $460 this coming July 22. Continental offers four to five daily flights between Pittsburgh and Houston. No other carriers fly nonstop between the cities.

Pittsburgh International spokeswoman JoAnn Jenny said the increased fares to Houston and Boston were steep.

But Jenny said a U.S. Department of Transportation report released last month showed that Pittsburgh, when all of its flights were factored in, had the 34th-lowest average round-trip fare among the nation's top 100 airports during the last three months of 2007.

Pittsburgh's average round-trip domestic fare was $300.96, well below the national average of $330.83.

Tom Fontaine can be reached online at tfontaine@timesonline.com.

A SILVER LINING?

There was some good news in BestFare.com's report.

"We believe the major airlines will only be able to demand this premium surcharge for the privilege to fly nonstop over the peak summer family travel period through the end of August or Labor Day," the report said.

"As we enter the fall travel period, we expect these airfares that were higher to be rolled back on many routes. Travelers who have travel plans during this slow travel period ... should wait this out."

To see more of Beaver County Times, Pa., or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timesonline.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, Beaver County Times, Pa.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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