Southwest Airlines Launches Winter Fare Sale

Nov. 12, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) launched its first major fare sale in five months, slashing one-way prices as low as $49 on tickets that include flights during the holidays.

The Dallas-based airline announced the three-day sale Tuesday morning, for flights between Dec. 2 and Feb. 11, which must be purchased 21 days in advance.

"We know folks are watching their spending, and we wanted to make traveling this winter a little easier on the bank account," Dave Ridley, the airline's senior vice president of marketing and revenue management, said in a news release.

Other carriers, including Fort Worth-based American Airlines (NYSE:AMR) , matched the sale prices on competing routes. Another winter sale, kicked off by Northwest Airlines last week, has also lowered prices in recent days for travel through January.

The last time Southwest put fares on sale across its entire system was in May, according to Tom Parsons, chief executive of Arlington-based Bestfares.com, which monitors airline ticket prices.

"I have been monitoring Southwest Airlines airfares for over 27 years and have seen Southwest avoid a nationwide airfare sale for about six weeks, usually between Memorial Day through the Fourth of July," Parsons said. "To hold out on a systemwide airfare sale for almost six months is historical."

Although Southwest tends to offer the industry's lowest prices, the carrier has slowly raised its fares over the past two years to compensate for higher fuel prices and other costs.

Gary Kelly, the airline's chief executive, recently suggested that fares will have to climb even higher next year to improve the airline's revenues.

The major airlines have been closely watching advance bookings for signs of weakness in travel demand as the economy cools. The size of the sale suggests that Southwest could be seeing a drop in demand.

But some travel experts noted that despite the sales, the cheap fares might still be hard to find because of sharp reductions in available seats.

For example, there will be 220,000 fewer seats available this year on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, typically one of the busiest travel days of the year, according to Rick Seaney, chief executive of Dallas-based FareCompare.com.

"Recent airfare sales may make holiday travel possible for some late shoppers, but seats at these low prices will be few," Seaney said.

At Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, about 8,000 fewer seats will be available during the Thanksgiving holiday compared with a year ago, according to Seaney.