Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Sharck Soup -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Spitz who wrote (29516)	6/26/2001 1:11:26 PM
From: Jim Spitz	Respond to of 37746

Northwest drops fares to lure more leisure travelers Donna Halvorsen Star Tribune Tuesday, June 26, 2001 Northwest Airlines lowered summer and fall vacation fares Monday to fill seats that were abandoned by business travelers amid signs of a weakening economy. "There's no question that the industry is down in business travel for the last couple of months," said Northwest spokesman Dennis Mollura. Northwest, the country's fourth-largest airline, agreed to match a fare sale initiated Monday by Delta Air Lines and quickly matched by American and United Airlines. But Eagan-based Northwest also extended its own summer fare sale, which offers special companion fares. The sale, which ended last week, has been extended through Friday. A round-trip flight from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Boston would cost $326 under the Delta match and $348 under the Northwest sale, but the Northwest sale program also includes a $198 companion fare, Mollura said. The fares do not include taxes and fees that may add more than $20 to each ticket. The two sales also have different time periods. With the Northwest sale, tickets must be purchased by Friday for travel through Sept. 13. For Northwest customers booking under the Delta match, tickets must be purchased by July 8 for travel through Oct. 31. Northwest also is offering cut-rate fares for travel around the Fourth of July holiday. Those flights must be booked by Wednesday for flights departing between July 2 and 4 and returning on July 5 and 6. The other airlines also are offering reduced fares for travel to Latin America and Asia. Mollura said it's uncertain whether Northwest will match overseas fares. The sale does not include Europe. Delta offered another 20 percent off of tickets that are bought on its Web site. Mollura said Northwest "will be competitive" with its own Internet fares. Airline expert Terry Trippler, affiliated with the Web site onetravel.com , said the fare sale is only "OK." "If you're thinking of going someplace, you might want to check out the price," he said. "But you're not going to go someplace right away because of the price." He said Northwest is doing such a good job of filling seats through niche marketing -- by offering coupons and bonus frequent-flier miles, for example -- that it doesn't need to offer huge discounts. "So I don't see Northwest blowing the skies open with major sales, although they do come up with some unique ones every now and then," he said. Trippler said he expects business travel to return to normal levels after Labor Day because corporations have begun to realize they may have overreacted to dire predictions about the economy. With the current sale, he said, "I think [the airlines] were going to fill in a few gaps in the pleasure travel market here, knowing that business travel is going to come back once Labor Day hits." Mollura said Northwest's leisure travel has not fallen off, but some analysts saw the discounts as a sign that demand for leisure travel may be flagging. Most major U.S. airlines lost money in the first quarter of this year and expect to have losses again in the second quarter because of lower sales to high-fare business fliers. For Delta, the sale comes as the airline tries to restore business lost amid a strike threat by its pilots and a pilot walkout and shutdown at the company's Comair commuter carrier. Both those situations were largely resolved last week, with the two pilot groups voting in favor of new contract agreements. -- Bloomberg News contributed to this report. -- Donna Halvorsen is at dhalvorsen@startribune.com . © Copyright 2001 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.