Yahoo, Travelocity Stage Sale of Airline Tickets

Yahoo Inc. and Travelocity.com Inc., the largest online-travel service, staged a one-day sale of discounted airline tickets for American Airlines, possibly paving the way for greater use of the Web for such sales.

American also offered the discount through its Web site.

It’s the first time a major airline has conducted a one-day ticket sale online, said Henry Harteveldt, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. Airlines usually run one-day sales through traditional travel agencies and reservation centers, supported by newspaper and radio advertising, Harteveldt said.

The number of U.S. households booking travel on the Internet will increase to 18.9 million this year from 14.9 million last year, Forrester forecasts. Sales will rise 37% to $16.7 billion from $12.2 billion last year, Forrester said.

Yahoo wants to demonstrate that it can boost sales of other companies’ products and services by promoting them across its network of sites, said Matt Rightmire, general manager of Yahoo’s media group.

Yahoo shares fell 75 cents to close at $16.55 on Nasdaq; shares of American’s parent, AMR Corp., fell 17 cents to close at $34.06 on the New York Stock Exchange.