Originally Posted by vatraveler
If UA can fill planes at these fares, more power to them. However, I imagine loads will drop.
There's also the customer anger factor. UA has gotten lots of negative press for the dramatic fare increases. If I feel they're gouging me to small markets, maybe I'll drive instead and then choose a competitor for larger markets or international. Just a thought...
It looks like United is flying more full (load factor increase of 2.1%) at higher prices. Posted below and link:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060303/unite...ffic.html?.v=2
United Airlines Traffic Up in February
Friday March 3, 4:34 pm ET
United Airlines Posts 4.4 Percent Increase in February Passenger Traffic
CHICAGO (AP) -- United Airlines, the world's second-largest airline, on Friday said February passenger traffic rose 4.4 percent, helped by increased occupancy and capacity.
Based on preliminary results, the company said traffic rose to 8.24 billion revenue passenger miles from 7.9 billion in the prior year. A revenue passenger mile equals one paying passenger flown one mile.
The company said capacity edged up 1.7 percent to 10.72 billion available seat miles from 10.55 billion. Load factor, or the percentage of seats filled, climbed to 76.9 percent from 74.8 percent a year earlier.
United said its number of departures rose 0.5 percent to 42,478 and its number of passengers rose 5 percent to about 5 million.
The company's Latin American operations posted the largest gain in traffic, up 16.3 percent to 404.8 million revenue passenger miles, while North American traffic grew 6.7 percent to 5.08 billion.
Shares of UAL Corp., United's parent company which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month, closed up 55 cents at $36.62 on the Nasdaq.
VAtraveler, what do you consider a reasonable price for that route? Why do you feel that you're being gouged? Because no one is willing to charge half the cost of flying those routes? Do you feel the same way when gas price wars end? You were given free money from FLYi's investors when they subsidized those ludicrously low ticket prices; did you expect it to go on forever?