The September 11th attack
Sale by Delta sparks global airfare cut
Advertiser News Services
People waiting to fly on the cheap got their chance yesterday as airlines began deeply discounting tickets to help rebuild passenger loads that have been down sharply since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Delta Air Lines, the nation's third largest carrier, kicked off the global fare sale. No. 4 Northwest Airlines quickly matched, as did No. 1 United Airlines and No. 2 American Airlines.
Delta Air Lines was the first to slash rates aimed at leisure travelers. American, United and Northwest followed suit. The cuts are the first broad-scale reductions in airfares since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Bloomberg News Service library photo
Terry Trippler, airline expert with OneTravel.com, said it appeared that all the major airlines had matched the fares by afternoon.
"This is the 'Everything Must Go!' kind of sale we've been looking for," said Trippler.
The new sale, which runs only through Monday, is not the first sale launched by the airlines since the attacks. Nor does it include the lowest prices available on every route. But the various fare sales and promotions introduced within the past week have been more modest campaigns aimed narrowly at business travelers and frequent fliers, Trippler said.
The new sale introduced yesterday is broadly aimed at price-conscious leisure travelers.
Northwest, for example, offered roundtrips from New York to Los Angeles for $279, Minneapolis-Boston for $251 and Detroit-Dallas for $251. Delta's roundtrip prices included New York-Mexico City for $200, Atlanta-Zurich for $342 and Chicago-Honolulu for $398.
United said a one-way ticket from Los Angeles to either New York or Chicago will cost $149. Delta said its flight from Los Angeles to Nagoya, Japan, will drop to $224.
All the sale fares require a roundtrip purchase.The airlines also are offering an extra 10 percent savings for reservations made on their Internet sites.
The various sales also offer discounts to Hawai'i, Canada, the Caribbean and Europe, including travel in October.
The offers are good for domestic travel until Dec. 15 and for international travel into early next year. But consumers must act fast because the special fares must be purchased no later than Monday. Certain dates around the Thanksgiving holiday are blacked out, and theref other restrictions.
