=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/chronicle/archive/2002/06= /01/BU123016.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, June 1, 2002 (SF Chronicle) Ticket hike/Airlines try to recoup their recent losses by raising fares for= leisure travelers David Armstrong, Chronicle Staff Writer If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Five major U.S. airlines took the adage to heart Friday, raising round-trip fares $20 on 7-day, 14-day and 21-day advance purchase tickets that require a Saturday night stay-over. The latest fare increase is the third attempt at a wide-ranging rise in rates in a little more than a month. The airlines twice tried to raise fares in April but backed off when Northwest Airlines refused to go along, not wanting to give Northwest a competitive advantage. Continental started the third and latest fare hike late Thursday, follow= ed on Friday by American, Delta and, in a restricted fashion, by United and maverick Northwest. Northwest matched the fare increase in a "very limited number of markets" where it sells tickets for flights on Continental and doesn't offer its own service, spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch said. United Airlines raised its fares $20 on routes that overlap with Northwe= st and Continental. "Our route systems have very little overlap," said Joe Hopkins, a spokesman for United, which has more passengers in Northern California than any other airline. "It's probably about 1 percent of our system." It remains unclear whether all the majors, including US Airways and Southwest Airlines, which were not heard from Friday, will follow with wide- ranging fare hikes of their own. Because consumer demand is higher during the summer vacation season, airline analyst Terry Trippler said that he expects other major carriers will act and that this fare increase will stick. Most advance buys are made by leisure travelers, who have benefited from lower fares after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The result has been a cash drain for the nation's airlines, which lost a combined $2 billion in the first quarter of this year. That dreadful quarter came on top of a record $7 billion loss for the nation's airlines for 2001. The losses were the result of passengers' fear of flying after Sept. 11, and of the slumping U.S. economy and the consequent cutbacks in business travel. "With the lack of high-paying business travelers, the burden to make an airline profitable now falls on the group that is flying -- the discretionary leisure travelers," said Tom Parsons, chief executive of Bestfares.com. While passenger demand was down 12 percent in April compared with last year, air travel has slowly increased since the sharp drop-off after Sept. 11. Nevertheless, the growing number of passengers has not helped the corporate bottom line, because carriers have increased demand by holding prices below the levels of a year ago. The average price of a domestic airfare was down by roughly 12 percent in April, compared with a year ago. A 1,000-mile domestic trip now costs $124.80 on average. Chronicle news services contributed to this report. / E-mail David Armstrong at davidarmstrong@sfchronicle.com.=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 SF Chronicle