Procurement
U.S. carriers are matching the slight domestic fare increase Southwest Airlines implemented this week,
according to industry analysts. Following an earlier increase by JetBlue, Southwest increased about 90,000 published one-way fares by $5, JPMorgan analysts said in a research note. FareCompare CEO Rick Seaney noted that most major North American carriers are matching those increases, though carriers this year have eschewed the frequent, broad hikes they enacted last year. “Carriers are less apt to toss spaghetti on the wall every two weeks with distance-based price hikes that were usually rolled back within a few days,” Seaney wrote. “What we have instead is hiking activity that is more measured and infrequent, typically targeting a segment like close-in travel or certain geographical areas instead of fares across the board.”