People Express Cuts Fare to $99 for L.A. to N.J.

People Express Airlines said Friday that it would reduce the fare on its midweek transcontinental flights to $99, the lowest such fare available.

Although one industry analyst said the reduction spelled a further erosion of the industry’s fare structures, no competing carrier said it would follow suit.

People Express said the new fare will apply on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, beginning next week, on flights between Los Angeles or Oakland and Newark International Airport.

The new fare includes the cost of connecting flights to 18 other cities via Newark: Baltimore; Boston; Buffalo, N.Y.; Burlington, Vt.; Chicago; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Columbus, Ohio; Detroit; Greensboro, N.C.; Hartford, Conn.; Houston; Minneapolis; Norfolk, Va.; Pittsburgh; Portland, Me.; Rochester, N.Y., and Washington.

On its Friday-through-Monday flights, the current unrestricted fares of $129 off-peak and $169 peak will apply.

Watching the Effect

A spokesman for Trans World Airlines said TWA would watch the effect of the new fares in the first few days before making any decision on matching them. But he said that perhaps People was acting because it is now carrying too many empty seats on the route.

American Airlines and World Airways, which also operate on the route, said that they had no immediate plans to lower their fares.

Several airlines had lowered their fares to $99 on the transcontinental run but all of them had increased their prices several months ago.

Louis Marckesano, an airline analyst with Philadelphia-based Janney Montgomery Scott Inc., said the action by People Express spelled a further deterioration of the airlines’ fares structures, which would mean a decline in industry profits in 1985.