Discount airlines add routes, rivalry By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY Low-fare airlines are extending their reach, a boost to summer vacationers= =20 on tight budgets. Over the past year, the top low-fare airlines have=20 started at least 44 big-jet routes around the country, a USA TODAY analysis= =20 of airline schedule data shows. The biggest low-fare carriers =97 Southwest,= =20 America West, AirTran, Frontier, Spirit, JetBlue and ATA =97 now account for= =20 24% of domestic scheduled airline seats. AirTran has been the most=20 aggressive, starting 13 non-stop routes in the past year. They have=20 connected cities as small as Akron, Ohio, and Moline, Ill., that previously= =20 lacked low-fare service. By contrast, the largest low-fare airline,=20 Southwest, has started fewer than six routes in the past year, mostly long= =20 hauls, such as Baltimore-San Jose, Calif. New low-fare service is going to: Canada and Mexico. America West added flights from Phoenix to Calgary and=20 Toronto in Canada and Cancun in Mexico. And Frontier now flies from Denver= =20 to Mazatl=E1n and Cancun, Mexico. It announced last week that it hopes to=20 begin flights to Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta as well. The Sun Belt.= =20 About half of the new routes connect California, Florida, Nevada or Arizona= =20 to other states. Bigger airlines' hubs. When US Airways cut flights from Pittsburgh, America= =20 West, ATA and AirTran swooped in to add routes. ATA started four round=20 trips a day to Chicago earlier this month. "Since US Airways emerged from=20 bankruptcy, there seems to be a little more open-mindedness by business=20 travelers" to try low-fare carriers, says Pittsburgh International Airport= =20 spokeswoman JoAnn Jenny. When discounters start flying new routes, it pressures major airlines to=20 lower fares where they compete. When ATA entered the Indianapolis-San=20 Francisco run, for instance, Northwest was forced to drop the round-trip=20 fare to $285 from $685 to stay competitive. While prices varied on four=20 sample routes discounters have entered in the past year, a quick analysis=20 by Harrell Associates found fares dropped to an average $78 round trip from= =20 $198 on the Boston-Philadelphia route after AirTran announced in March that= =20 flights would begin in May. "It's getting a little more crowded for the=20 high-cost airlines," says Tom Parsons, publisher of BestFares.com. It's getting crowded for the discounters, too. All seven now fly to the Los= =20 Angeles area. On Friday, Delta low-fare unit Song Airways announced it will= =20 start flights there, too. Most also serve Chicago. The heated competition=20 has driven some low-cost competitors, such as National and Vanguard, out of= =20 the skies. But new discounters keep springing up, such as Song and a new=20 cost-cutting service within Midwest Airlines. *************************************************** 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/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.natalielaughlin.com/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************