Starting August 20, many airlines will discount their fares and start to offer their cheapest domestic fairs by 10% to 20%. Carriers usually cut fares once children head back to school but this year they are starting early.
Rick Seaney of FareCompare.com said that deals are coming in sooner than usual because airlines are trying to convince fliers who might be weary of flying because of the struggling economy. He said to USA Today, "When an airline fires out a sale, it's probing its competition and it's probing the appetite of consumers.They'll do the sale, evaluate it, and figure out what they need to do for their pricing strategy."
Because of the recession people have been flying less, but more people returned to the air into 2010. Airlines started to charge more for tickets at this time and attempted ro raise prices 22 times in 2011 and six times during the first three months of 2012. Sales this summer were approximately 8 percent higher on average than last year.
Now airlines are cutting travelers a break by offering deals for longer periods of time and taking off summer travel surcharges. Seaney explains that he thinks the airlines are probably a bit worried about the economy and believe that they have," wrung about as much coin out of the consumers as they can."
Yet others such as George Hobica of Airfarewatchdog.com believes the cuts might be because of changing school calenders, not because of weary fliers.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
