In what is good news for cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages, Delta Air Lines most recent attempt to increase the price of its domestic airfares has been unsuccessful.
Last Tuesday, January 17th, Delta Airlines initiated a fare increase of $4 to $10 across the bulk of its U.S. routes, the second domestic price increase in just over one week.
Typically when a legacy carrier (one of the remaining major airlines) increases its domestic airfares at least one other airline matches the higher prices to see if the increased prices will stick. Last week though this was not the case and Delta was left with uncompetitive pricing for two days before reducing its prices.
The previous week Delta imposed a $20 price increase on long haul flights. The same week JetBlue raised its prices on shorter haul flights. Their price increase strategy seems to be following last years approach when they tried to impose most of their price increases in the first half of the year because typically it is more difficult to raise prices later in the year.
Airline pricing is largely dependent on competition, supply, demand and fuel prices. At present all four factors are expected to contribute to higher ticket prices going forward, particularly for peak travel days during spring break and early summer.
Would be travelers are advised to purchase their tickets sooner than later, particularly for travel during spring break and this summer, to avoid further anticipated airline ticket price increases. www.cheapfares.com