Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 31, 1995 TAG: 9508310064
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Round-trip flights are available to New York City for $133, Denver for $315, Dallas or Fort Worth for $292 and Atlanta for $163.
Recently introduced discounts offer savings of 14 percent to 50 percent off the previous lowest domestic fares, according to Roanoke Regional Airport spokesman Mark Courtney. The average fare savings for the 20 most popular destinations from Roanoke is 31 percent, he said.
"These are the most dramatic cuts we've seen in the recent past, but not as much as we saw a couple of years ago when we had people calling at all hours trying to get tickets," said Mel Ludovici, president of Martin Travel in Roanoke.
He said he's surprised to see airlines discounting fares because most carriers have trimmed routes and taken planes out of service to balance the supply of seats with demand. Over the past 90 days ticket prices have increased steadily.
This week's fare sale may be the result of soft boardings at some airports - including a 10.6 percent drop in passenger boardings in July from June at Roanoke.
Courtney said that Continental and Northwest airlines announced discounted fares Sunday and USAir, which provides 21 of the 44 daily fights from Roanoke, followed suit.
The rates are the best he's seen in quite awhile, Courtney said. It's normal at this time of year for the airlines to offer fare sales in order to boost passenger counts in the fall after summer vacations are over, he said.
The catch is that the discount tickets must be purchased by Friday and they are nonrefundable. Another catch is the tickets are good for travel between noon Mondays and noon Thursdays and all day Saturdays through Dec. 15.
"It's aimed right at the pleasure traveler," said Ludovici, adding that his company keeps a list of about 600 people who say they want to travel to specific destinations when fares go below a certain level. "There are a whole lot of people whose travel can be done at their leisure," he said.
by CNB