British Air Is Offering Big Discounts, Raising Prospect of a Fall Fare War
British Airways PLC signaled a possible fall fare war with airlines flying to its London base by offering discounts of 15% on tickets and up to 35% on hotels and related travel costs.</br></br>The discounts, which are deeper and offered earlier than many other off-peak fall reductions, further indicate the lingering effects of the recession and security concerns dating from the Persian Gulf War -- which reduced traffic on some trans-Atlantic flights 30%.</br></br>"We're going to match" the air fares, said a spokesman for AMR Corp.'s American Airlines. UAL Corp.'s United Airlines and Continental Airlines, a unit of Continental Airlines Holdings Inc., said they would do the same thing, while studying the British carrier's other travel discounts. Officials at Delta Air Lines and NWA Inc.'s Northwest Airlines said they were still considering whether to follow British Airways' lead.</br></br>"Given British Airways' dominant position in the United Kingdom market, the U.S. airlines will probably have to follow them," said Sam Buttrick, an analyst at Kidder, Peabody & Co.</br></br>British Airways has a 39% share of U.S.-London passenger traffic, followed by American, 16%, and United, 11%.