Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 8, 1991                   TAG: 9102080166
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

SURCHARGE SCRAPPED AS FARE WARS BEGIN

"It's been dropped," Northwest spokeswoman Christy Clapp said. "It would be difficult from a competitive standpoint for us to fill seats if our fares were $15 higher."

Northwest announced the surcharge Monday, saying it was needed to offset higher costs resulting from the Persian Gulf War. But Clapp said other airlines balked at doing the same.

American Airlines said Thursday it was expanding its own half-price sale beyond the territory where it competes with America West.

American spokesman Tim Smith said the cheap fares would be available in "roughly 100 different cities . . . all of the big East Coast cities, all of the big West Coast cities."

The America West promotion, which offered half-price tickets through Saturday for travel good through next Jan. 5, was branded a harmful fire sale by competitors. But by late Thursday nearly every major airline had matched it. - Associated Press