You pay more to fly as airlines spend less: Globetrotter

Even as jet kerosene heads for its first annual decline since 2008, airlines are relying on strong ticket demand to hold the line on prices. U.S. carriers have no incentive to start offering fares for less -- and they say they won't, Bloomberg reports. "Just like gasoline prices drop for the consumer, why not airline prices?" said Hank Levenson, who was flying this month to Orlando, Florida, from Dallas for his law-enforcement training business. "Coming from the same refinery, the same source, why not pass it on to the consumer? That's what good customer service is all about." Crude oil's worldwide slide in 2014 has cut jet fuel by 22 percent, a boost for U.S. carriers because it's their largest cost. At the same time, one-way domestic coach flights averaged $466 this year through September, 1.7 percent more than for all of 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence. "You were willing to pay that price yesterday, so what's different?" said Bob Mann, a former American Airlines executive who is now president of aviation consultant R.W. Mann & Co. in Port Washington, New York. "Airlines have the pricing power. Why are they ever going to give it up?" Details also at