CHICAGO — First it was soaring ticket prices and vanishing bargain fares, then new baggage fees. Now air travelers are facing dwindling choices on when they can fly and where — even to such popular tourist destinations as Las Vegas and Orlando.

The squeeze, a byproduct of record oil prices that are pushing airlines toward financial disaster, accelerated yesterday when United Airlines announced plans to take 70 more jets out of service and cut domestic capacity by about 18 percent in 2008-09. Its discount unit Ted will be shut down and 1,100 additional jobs eliminated, with more to follow.

That came two weeks after a similar move by AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, the only U.S. carrier larger than United, which said it will slash domestic capacity about 12 percent after the peak summer travel season. American already has begun eliminating flights, as have No. 3 Delta Air Lines Inc. and others.

That's bad news for travelers, especially those who fly out of smaller regional airports that are losing flights and service, and it's almost certain to get worse unless oil prices drop and take the pressure off airlines to keep shrinking.

While United didn't specify routes or flights to be trimmed, the airlines already have begun targeting less-profitable flights even if they are to leisure destinations with strong demand. Several carriers have cut back on service to Las Vegas, Honolulu and elsewhere; Delta's service to and from Orlando, Fla., is down 45 percent from a year ago.

While demand for tickets to those destinations remains solid, the airlines say they have to focus on higher-priced and more profitable routes in the face of sky-high fuel prices.

In many cases, major carriers have more than doubled or even tripled their cheapest U.S. fares from last summer's fares. That's on top of new fees for checking luggage and other services.

Tom Parsons, chief executive of discount travel site Bestfares.com, looked at the lowest fares for nonstop travel in July — the kind of tickets that usually must be bought in advance and therefore appeal mostly to vacationers, not business travelers. Parsons said that where major carriers offer nonstop flights and low-fare competitors offer only one-stop service, fares are up to 365 percent higher than a year ago.

Airline consultant Robert Mann said the tourism and travel industries as a whole could see "serious collateral damage," with a likely drop in air travelers affecting hotels and resorts in places that have flourished with the proliferation of low air fares.

The outlook may be grimmest of all for airlines that don't cut back enough to survive oil prices that are trading above $122 a barrel, even after a decline from $135. That's still well more than double the $50-a-barrel price that United pegged its business plan to after emerging from bankruptcy in 2006.