An industrywide air-fare increase initiated last week by American Airlines faltered over the weekend, but remained mostly intact on Monday, a sign that the trend toward higher fares still has some momentum.
American, the world's largest airline and a unit of AMR Corp, said its $10 round-trip fare increase on domestic routes was still in place. Its largest US rival, UAL Corp's United Airlines, said it matched the increase last week, rescinded on Sunday and reinstated it on Monday.
"I believe the American Airlines initiated $10 round-trip increase will, for the most part, end up successful," said Rick Seaney, chief executive at fare tracker FareCompare.com.
The airline industry, recovering from a years-long downturn, has been clawing its way out of the slump with help from capacity cuts and a series of revenue-booking fare increases that started last year. The trend toward higher fares continued in 2007 but with less gusto as various price increases initiated by individual carriers failed to win matches.