United follows American in boosting fares CHICAGO (AP) =97 United Airlines on Friday raised non-sale fares on its= North=20 American routes by $10 per round trip starting June 1, matching a move made= =20 by American Airlines a day earlier. United spokesman Jason Schechter=20 declined to elaborate on the reason behind the increase beyond citing the=20 action by American. Tim Wagner, a spokesman for American, said he could not= =20 comment on a reason for the fare increase, which was approved Thursday and= =20 starts June 1. Both American and United =97 the world's two biggest airlines= =20 =97 are desperate for revenue after losing billions of dollars in the= airline=20 industry's worst slump ever. United, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy= =20 protection in December, reported an industry-worst $1.34 billion loss last= =20 week for the first three months of 2003. It cited the weak economy, war in= =20 Iraq, SARS and the necessity of low fares for the latest deficit and a=20 decline of 8% in passenger revenue. American lost $1.04 billion for the=20 same period and narrowly averted falling into bankruptcy itself. The=20 carrier recently announced that it had 7.1 million passengers in April,=20 down 8.1% from April 2002. The higher fares also will offset the expiration= =20 of the passenger security fees that have been levied on each flight as part= =20 of a government plan to assist the ailing industry during the war-related=20 downturn. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.cso.gov.tt TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************