News articles in Air, Fares & Fees

(June 11, 2009 - DTN) - Air Canada and WestJet Airlines, both Canadian carriers, have increased commissions for travel agents and lowered fares to attract passengers as the summer travel season kicks off. "The way the economy is with the recession, everybody's trying all kinds of things to get people flying," said Peter Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for Air Canada. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - Wednesday November 19, 2008) -- This holiday season, it's still shoes off and liquids out at airport security, but changes may be on the way to part of this routine, and agents will be watching much more than the contents of your carry-on.

In the coming months, the government expects to revisit its rule for the amount of liquids that may be brought aboard planes, while boosting the number of behavior detection officers deployed at checkpoints across the country.

More than 2,000 are already on the job, and the program is growing every day, said Christopher White, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration.

"What the officers are looking for are physiological signs that cannot be manipulated that indicate stress, fear or deception," White said. "We find bad people everyday with behavior detection officers."

The specially trained agents, who work in teams, establish a baseline of behavior and then search for people who rise above that level, he added. read more »

(May 15, 2008 - CNNMoney.com) -- As if high fuel prices aren’t enough, airlines and passengers are getting pinched by rising taxes as the U.S. government demands a bigger piece of the pie.

About 20% of the price of a $300 domestic round-trip ticket goes to taxes and fees, according to the Air Transport Association, compared with 13% in 1992 and 7% in 1972.

“When the government decides to throw another tax on passengers, that is greatly hurting an already financially hurting industry,” said ATA spokesman David Castelveter. “We’ve long said that we are one of the most overtaxed industries, and we now are dealing with record-level fuel increases. The airline industry is in a worse financial situation than it was on 9/11.”

Rick Seaney, chief executive of online ticket vendor Farecompare.com, dissected ticket prices and estimated that the U.S. government reaped $40 billion in airline ticket taxes in 2007.

Seaney broke down the price of a $300 domestic round-trip flight: read more »

(May 27, 2008 - The New York Times) --  The six network airlines put in place another round of fare increases over the holiday, ranging up to $60 for a round-trip ticket, said Rick Seaney, the chief executive officer of Farecompare.com. It was the 11th fare increase of the year that all six major carriers had joined in. Despite the wide-ranging fare increases, airlines have been “very cautious” about increasing fares on routes where there is competition from Southwest, JetBlue and other low-cost carriers, Mr. Seaney said. Additionally, he said, airlines are now frequently “firing out short-duration sales” on fares for certain routes, mostly to fill seats on off-peak business travel days.

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