Airfare price trend seen down in new year CHICAGO (Reuters) =97 Travelers looking for airfare deals after United=20 Airlines' bankruptcy filing may have to wait until after the holiday travel= =20 season for the fare wars to kick in, industry experts said Tuesday. But=20 even with the prospect of fewer flights offered by various carriers next=20 year, fares can only go lower because there simply is not enough demand to= =20 fill planes, they said. And low-cost carriers like Southwest Airlines and=20 JetBlue Airways Corp. threaten to gobble up the slim demand that does=20 exist. "Even with United (possibly) cutting back, the other airlines aren't= =20 going to fill up. There are too many seats out there right now," said=20 airfare expert Terry Trippler of TerryTrippler.com. "Fares will probably go= =20 down in January because there will be some type of sale to try to get=20 people on planes." United, the No. 2 U.S. airline and a unit of UAL Corp.,= =20 has stressed that its flight service will not be disrupted by its Monday=20 bankruptcy filing, the largest airline bankruptcy ever. In a statement issued Monday, United acknowledged that its restructuring=20 may result in route or service changes, but a United spokesman would not=20 offer any details on potential route changes or comment on the carrier's=20 airfare strategy. "We have said we're going to look at all aspects of our=20 company and our cost structure to look at ways we can operate more=20 efficiently, and I think we'll look at everything," United spokesman Joe=20 Hopkins said. "But it's premature to say what actions are going to be=20 taken." US Airways, the No. 6. U.S. airline, has cut back on its flight=20 schedule since filing for bankruptcy in August. Travel agents Tuesday said= =20 they expect United will also trim flights in an effort to reduce costs.=20 "They're probably going to look to consolidate some routes that they have=20 as US Airways did during their reorganization period," said Alicia=20 Klosowski, a spokeswoman for corporate travel agency Rosenbluth=20 International Travel Management. Travel agents said Tuesday they had not seen any lower fares sparked by=20 United's bankruptcy filing or an immediate rush to book on other carriers.= =20 And a number of travel agencies have attempted to reassure nervous=20 passengers =97 as United has attempted to do itself =97 that United flights= =20 will operate as usual. Klosowski said her agency has encouraged passengers= =20 to continue booking on United. And online travel agency Travelocity has a=20 recorded message on its customer service line telling callers that United=20 flights are running as scheduled. "We still continue to book thousands of=20 passengers (on United) just like we did when US Airways went bankrupt,"=20 said Terri Shank, a spokeswoman for online travel agency Orbitz. "At this=20 point, we have seen absolutely no changes in the fares." Several airfare watchers noted that most people already have their December= =20 holiday travel plans in place, which makes early December one of the=20 slowest booking periods of the year. Still, with fewer seats offered as=20 airlines reduce capacity to cut costs in the months ahead, cheaper fares=20 will be snatched up more quickly, said Tom Parsons, chief executive of=20 online travel agency Bestfares.com. Parsons predicted that the number of=20 seats airlines offer by March will be down by about 20% compared with=20 levels two years ago. In October, domestic capacity =97 measured in= available=20 seat miles =97 was down 9% from 2000, according to the Air Transport=20 Association, the airline industry's trade group. "We could see some=20 bargain-basement deals in January and February, and United could be a=20 leader on that front," Parsons said. "They just want to get people on the=20 planes." The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (TnT News) http://www.tntmirror.com/ (TnT News) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************