Airline prices
still sky high

Even as planes take off with
few passengers, deals to
Hawaii are absent

---

By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Mainlanders who think the airlines' huge loss of business in the wake of the Sept. 11 hijack crashes ought to produce some cheap fairs to Hawaii are largely being disappointed.

Most airlines still have full fares posted and for people who want to travel right now, some of them seem outlandish, given airlines' low bookings.

A check of airline Web sites shows very few Hawaii specials and some really steep fares for those who don't want to wait for the usual 14- or 21-day advance-booking specials.

Looking late last week for mainland-Hawaii fares for travel Wednesday reveals some gems. United Airlines will sell travelers a $1,073 round-trip ticket to Honolulu from San Francisco or $2,394 from New York, out of the Newark, N.J., airport. Northwest, Delta and American Airlines have Los Angeles-Honolulu round trips for about $470 and San Francisco-Honolulu for about $600 on the Travelocity.com Web site.

American Airlines' Web site offers a lowest fare of $1,063 from Los Angeles.

"They don't seem to be doing much in reducing prices," said Sharon Lester, president of Honolulu-based International Travel Service Inc. "They are doing a few things, but it doesn't seem that they're really encouraging people to buy right now. Maybe they feel people will wait 'til they feel safer."

On the Travelocity and Orbitz Web sites, Hawaiian Airlines comes out a winner, with the lowest West Coast-Hawaii fares. Hawaiian did launch a Hawaii sale after the tragedy, and is showing mid-week fares from the West Coast to Honolulu running as low as $366 from Los Angeles and $456 from San Diego, for travel from now through Dec. 14.

Aloha Airlines hasn't done any discounting and has a posted fare of $638 for Oakland-Honolulu in the middle of the week.

Fares are clearly cheaper for travel to Hawaii for those travelers who can wait for the advance-booking restricted fares, which traditionally most mainland-Hawaii tourists use.

United, for example, has a $367 Los Angeles-Honolulu fare for those who book now for travel in late October.

Joe Hopkins, a United spokesman in Chicago, said a lot of sale prices that were in effect before the Sept. 11 disaster are still in place.

"Fares already have been pretty deeply discounted and some sales were extended," Hopkins said. However, industry analysts are saying people still have a fear of flying and "that is the motivating factor, rather than the price of the ticket."

Airline load factors, the percentage of available seats that are occupied by paying passengers, are "severely depressed," Hopkins said.

The good news is that business is picking up on the Hawaii flights, he said.

"We're not above 90 percent, which is where we often are, but it is well above our system average, significantly above," Hopkins said.

With all the steps government, the airline industry and others are taking, confidence in airline travel will return, Hopkins said, as people realize it is tougher than ever for anyone to hijack a plane.

Meanwhile, airlines are losing money on just about every flight, and that may be one of the reasons they don't feel that discounting is a good idea.

Lester noted that United, which started its "Mele Kalikimaka" special Christmas fares for Hawaii residents in the 1980s, and the other airlines that matched it, have all brought out their seasonal specials about a month earlier than usual.

SKY HIGH PRICING Prices for round-trip tickets to Honolulu from various cities for travel Wednesday, and returning a week later. Tickets are the lowest price with the fewest numbers of stops. Prices may vary. *Aloha does not fly to Los Angeles, but to Orange County, Calif. SAN FRANCISCO American $597 Delta $597 United $712 Hawaiian $1,196 NEW YORK American $2,394 Delta $2,394 United $2,394 Northwest $2,386 LOS ANGELES American $727 United $484 Hawaiian $407 Aloha* $617 SAN DIEGO American $997 Continental $513 Hawaiian $518 United $512