Shortly After the First Rush, Part 2 of Air Fare Wars Begins

Several airlines launched a midsummer sale Monday by slashing round-trip fares as low as $100--only three weeks after another deep price cut sent travelers stampeding to get the bargains.

America West Airlines, a medium-sized carrier based in Phoenix that flies nationwide, started the latest fare war. It was quickly matched by United, American, Delta and Trans World Airlines on routes where they compete with America West.

Among America West’s new fares: a $100 round-trip price between Burbank and Tucson and a $200 round-trip fare from Los Angeles to New York.

America West trumpeted its sale as cutting “fares as low as $50 each way.” But one of the restrictions on the new fares is that customers must buy round-trip tickets.

And there are several other restrictions.

Customers have to buy their tickets no later than Saturday, and at least a three-day advance purchase is required. They must also fly at night to get the best bargains.

The tickets can be used for travel through Dec. 15, but there are heavily traveled, holiday “blackout periods” when they can’t be used, including Nov. 17-22 and Nov. 30-Dec. 2.

The cheap fares also require a Saturday night stay, and as always, the number of discounted seats available is limited.

Despite those hurdles, travelers have recently shown a big appetite for bargain air travel, which the airlines see as a way to fill their airplanes during off-peak hours.

Last month, Southwest Airlines cut fares as low as $25 one way in all of its nonstop markets. Although that sale lasted only a few days, Southwest’s telephone-reservation system was jammed with calls and long lines of bargain hunters formed at Burbank Airport, John Wayne Airport in Orange County and other Southwest ticket locations.

United Airlines, which matched Southwest on routes where they compete, also got a big reception, saying it sold 175,000 tickets in the sale’s first three days.

That commotion caught America West’s attention, acknowledged the carrier’s spokesman, Gus Whitcomb.

“You would have had to be asleep not to notice the volume of calls that the [Southwest] sale evoked,” he said. America West’s sale, he said, “is intended to let folks know there is more than one low-fare carrier out there.”

Airline sales at this time of year are typical, because “after Sept. 1, advance bookings fall right off the table,” said Michael K. Lowry, president of the research firm Aviation Forecasting & Economics in Lake Oswego, Ore.

But the sales aren’t expected to seriously erode the airlines’ profits because the discounts are so brief and restricted. Also, the carriers are having one of their strongest summer seasons in years, and America West in particular has been posting excellent results, he said.

Indeed, Wall Street shrugged off the sales and bid most airline stocks higher Monday. The American Stock Exchange’s index of 10 major airline stocks rose 5.47 points to 398.40, although America West itself slipped 25 cents a share, to $16.875, in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

“What Southwest did was an outstanding marketing ploy,” Lowry said. “America West is trying to regain some of that attention.”

And what about Southwest? The Dallas-based airline has no plans to match the cuts announced Monday, spokesman Ed Stewart said.

Times wire services contributed to this report.