Northwest Leads Carriers in Leisure Sale

Northwest Airlines Corp. started a sale on leisure travel even as it and other major U.S. carriers stuck with a 3% business-fare increase begun last week, as the airlines try to boost both average prices and ticket demand. In cutting leisure fares as much as 35%, Northwest was followed by UAL Corp.’s United Airlines, AMR Corp.’s American Airlines and Delta Air Lines Inc. U.S. carriers also are looking to counteract jet-fuel prices that are nearly twice as high as those of a year ago. However, lagging demand for tickets has led some airlines to try certain discounts.