"No-frills soar as big U.S. carriers stagger"

Friday, September 12, 2003

And in the U.S.? No-frills soar as big carriers stagger  
By Barry Estabrook
The New York (NY) Times

 
Roland Schriever is the customer that executives at major airlines dream
about. A sales executive with a St. Louis shoe company, Schriever logs more
than 100 flights a year on business, some of which he books at the last
minute without the Saturday night layovers necessary for reduced fares.

And now that their children have left home, Schriever and his wife find the
time to take at least 10 pleasure trips a year. If he flew regularly on a
major carrier - American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, United or US
Airways - he would be pampered with perks like first-class upgrades,
priority boarding, preferential seating and free club memberships. But
avoids the big airlines.

Instead, he lines up with college students and traveling families to get
unassigned seats on the single-class, no-frills Southwest Airlines, which
was founded in 1971 and is the largest of the low-cost airlines that are
aggressively expanding in the United States.

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, through May the seven
largest discount airlines - Air Tran (www.airtran.com), America West
(www.americawest.com), ATA (www.ata.com), Frontier
(www.frontierairlines.com), JetBlue (www.jetblue.com), Southwest
(www.iflyswa.com) and Spirit (www.spiritair.com) - flew 22 percent of all
passengers in the United States, up from 15 percent in 1995. In May,
Southwest flew more passengers than any other carrier.

As major carriers lay off staff, cut routes and mothball planes, the
discounters continue to grow. In June, JetBlue, which was founded in 2000,
announced that it had ordered 165 new jets with options to buy 150 more. In
July, Air Tran said it would be buying 60 new planes and has options on 50
more. ''The big airlines are getting smaller and the low-cost airlines are
continuing to expand,'' said Tom Parsons, president of the Web site
BestFares.com. ''The discount airlines have proven that you can make money,
have good on-time performance, have a good safety record and do it for a
fair buck to the consumer.''

It was price that first persuaded Schriever to fly a discount airline. ''I
was looking at a $1,000 ticket versus a $200 ticket on the same dates to the
same destination,'' he said. ''With that dramatic a difference, I felt I had
to take the low-cost flight.''

But what persuaded him to stay with Southwest was the service. ''It's not
just the money,'' he said. ''The Southwest people are much friendlier and
easier to deal with. Their job is to move people, and they have a can-do
attitude. That's a big part of why I fly them. Plus, I very seldom run into
late flights.''

The low-cost airlines have forced the major carriers to offer competitive
fares on shared routes, which can result in dramatic reductions. Delta
enjoyed a near monopoly between Atlanta and Los Angeles until this year,
when JetBlue and Air Tran entered that market. According to data compiled by
Harrell Associates, a travel consulting company, Delta's fare for a one-way,
three-day-advance ticket with no Saturday stay dropped to $499 in mid
August, from $1,051 in February.

''This is not uncommon,'' said Bob Harrell, the company's president. ''You
could probably find dozens of examples where this type of pricing collapse
has occurred.''

In April, Delta struck back by launching its own low-cost airline, Song
(www.flysong.com). Like JetBlue, Song will feature leather seats and
satellite television on its flights - along with low fares, of course.

This frenzied competition, coupled with the seat sales and special
Internet-only rates continuously offered by all types of airlines, means
that a traveler trying to find the best available fare now faces a confusing
array of choices. ''The problem today is that we are in information
overload, and there is no one Web site - mine included - that is better than
everybody else every day of the week,'' said Parsons of BestFares.com.

Other online travel Web sites include Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com,
Expedia.com, Lowestfare.com and Cheaptickets.com.

''Low-cost airlines distributing their product over the Internet is the way
to go,'' said Bob Cowen, a software salesman who maintains
www.internettraveltips.com, which has links to more than 100 travel sites,
many useful in shopping for low fares. He recommended that travelers go to
the Web sites of all low-cost airlines serving their areas and sign up for
weekly e-mail announcements of special fares. These fares are time-limited
but are often far less restrictive than the specials of major airlines.

He also said that travelers should sign up for the weekly newsletter of
special fares available free from www.smarterliving.com. The site can be
tailored to provide only the fare information pertinent to specified cities.
''They do not uncover every fare and sometimes they get you the information
too late, but the site is still useful,'' said Cowen.

Once the best price is found, Cowen recommends booking directly through an
airline's site to avoid service charges, though he admits, ''Sometimes it
seems like you can spend more time researching your trip than taking it.''
But as Parsons of BestFares.com said, ''It's better than paying air fares
that will force you to refinance your home.''


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