America West to Offer Discount Fares to Bay Area : Airlines: The Phoenix-based carrier will go all out for business travelers with a $79 ticket from John Wayne to Northern California.

America West Airlines said Monday that it will enter the competition for business travelers between Northern and Southern California with fares that undercut by more than half the cheapest, unrestricted one-way flight between Orange County and San Francisco

Starting Feb. 1, the airline will offer eight daily flights from John Wayne Airport at a cost of $79 one-way for last-minute ticket purchases. The cheapest unrestricted flight now between Orange County and the Bay Area is $168 one-way.

“We feel it’s a business market and there are opportunities to attract businessmen at $79,” said Sherril Newton, manager of pricing for Phoenix-based America West, a regional carrier known for its discount service.

The company also said it will match the $29, one-way restricted fare--sold on a limited number of seats usually to non-business consumers--offered by the other airlines that fly the route, which are USAir, United Airlines and its commuter partner, United Express.

America West also announced a $79 unrestricted and $29 restricted one-way fare between Long Beach and San Jose; currently only United Airlines flies that route, offering an unrestricted fare one way of $142 and a restricted fare of $46. The two daily flights from Long Beach begin Jan. 6.

America West’s announcement could prompt a fare war at John Wayne, which has traditionally had some of the highest ticket prices among Southland airports. “We think that everybody else is going to match the fare,” said Peter Otradovec, planning manager for America West.

High fares at John Wayne have been attributed to noise and other restrictions that have limited the number of flights and the high percentage of business passengers, who are less cost-conscious than other consumers.

America West’s decision to offer flights from Orange County to San Francisco comes a month after American Airlines dropped five daily round-trip flights on the route, saying its airplanes were not full enough to make the trips profitable.

But Otradovec said the Orange County-San Francisco route should be a profitable one for America West in the long run, although it may not be initially with fuel prices as high as they are now,

“American is a very high-cost airlines compared to ours,” Otradovec said. “We have one of the youngest and most fuel-efficient fleets in the industry because we’re new.”

America West has been in business since 1983. The additional flights announced by the company Monday will be the first it has started that do not include its hub locations of Phoenix or Las Vegas. The airlines now has 12 flights a day from Orange County to Phoenix and Las Vegas and is one of two airlines to have a frequent flyer club in Orange County, Otradovec said.

Otradovec said America West is using 737-300 planes with a special high-performance engine, called a CFM-B2. The engine is designed for a larger plane, the 737-400, and lets the smaller plane gain altitude more quickly, he said. Thus, the planes are higher when they pass noise monitors just outside of John Wayne.

Fares between the Los Angeles basin and the Bay Area have been falling since spring. No-frills Southwest Airlines, based in Dallas, began flying between Northern and Southern California in April with a $58 round-trip fare between Oakland and Burbank. Before Southwest entered the Burbank-to-Oakland market, fares were averaging $186. After the entry, the unrestricted one-way fare dropped to $59.