Holiday Fails to Boost Many Airlines

As the busy Thanksgiving travel weekend wound down on Sunday, there were preliminary indications that airlines are still suffering from too much summertime price-cutting and not enough economic recovery.

Travel officials said demand for air travel this Thanksgiving and Christmas has been lower than usual, with seats still readily available for flights around Christmas. Overall figures on air travel during the long Thanksgiving weekend are not yet available.

Less-than-jolly holiday bookings prompted airlines last week to cut domestic discount fares by 30% for travel starting in December.

American Airlines spokeswoman Teresa Hanson said Sunday that travel on the nation’s largest air carrier was “flat to slightly below” last year, attributing it to the economy’s slow recovery and last summer’s half-price ticket sale. The price wars caused financial losses at most major airlines.

“We feel that a lot of people spent their vacation money earlier in the year and visited family then,” Hanson said.

At Delta Airlines, traffic was “just about at the same level or possibly just a slight bit above,” said spokesman Neil Monroe. But the figures are a good sign given the worrisome predictions for the season, he said.

“There’s no question that the half-price sale did have a dramatic impact on travel all through the fall,” Monroe said. “But a lot of people expected a sharp drop-off and that has not happened, so that’s encouraging.”

A United Airlines spokesman reported “very strong traffic” and said the carrier had to add more flights on some routes. Southwest Airlines spokesman Ed Stewart said the airline was “a little bit busier this year.”