Earth Shaking News

Two newspaper items caught my attention in the last week: First, USA Today, October 23, breathlessly reported on the front page with big headlines "Fares climb 15% for holiday." Well, duh. Breaths there a reader who doesn’t know that airfares will rise for holiday travel? Particularly if you don’t get your ticket until a month before the holiday? Is this front-page news? Hey, if pax take advantage of low prices when demand is low, why is it a surprise that airlines raise prices when demand is high? Second, The Wall Street Journal today reported on an airfare price war in the Hawaiian Islands. Now this is more interesting. Mesa moved into the inter-island market (with a new subsidiary called "go!") and prices are down to $39 one-way from one island to another. Not only that, but a federal judge, after reading an internal Mesa e-mail saying of competitor Aloha—"We definitely don’t want to wait for them to die, rather we should be the ones who give them the last push."—has decided that "The evidence raises real doubts about the propriety of Mesa’s conduct." As WSJ said, that’s a little bold faced even for the "cut-throat, nasty" airline industry. Funny thing is, this price war is in a declining market, and has done little to revive flagging inter-island sales. In spite of summer fares as low as $19 one way, traffic rose only 3.1%. (In times "BM"—before Mesa—fares ranged from $79 to $190.) Once again it seems the airlines are on a kamikaze mission. Does anybody remember Peter, Paul and Mary singing, "When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?" We'd love to post your comments. Please click the comment box at the top.