Jets full and fewer - Tulsa World

Along with fewer seats and higher fares compared with the fall of 2010, more Americans are planning on traveling for fall break, Thanksgiving and Christmas despite an uncertain economy, industry surveys show.

In its annual Fall Travel Trends Survey, Travel Leaders Group, one of the nation's top leisure and corporate travel companies, found that travel bookings this fall are higher than they were in the same period a year ago. The survey, which was conducted Aug. 1-19, includes responses from 443 travel agency owners, managers and front-line travel agents nationwide.

The U.S. airline industry is reporting similar findings, although the industry is expected to cut the number of seats for sale by 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the year-ago period, said the Air Transport Association, the trade group for the major airlines.

Bookings at the carriers are "holding their own" midway through the third quarter, and a sluggish economy is not materially weakening demand, said ATA Chief Economist John Heimlich.

"Things are better and holding up reasonably well," Heimlich said.

But along with the seasonal capacity reductions this year, space is expected to get even tighter because of the mergers of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines and United Airlines and Continental Airlines, industry officials said.

"The United-Continental merger is going quickly," said Nancy Winn, a travel agent with Travel Leaders/Spears Travel in Tulsa. "It's having an effect on flights, which are being reduced to Houston. Delta-Northwest are reducing aircraft and flights. Some airlines are cutting out Saturday flights, trimming their schedule, tweaking their schedule, to meet demand. It's happened in the last month."

This means travelers and college students wanting to return home for fall break or the holidays must book their travel plans now to have any hope of finding space or a reasonable fare, travel industry officials said.

"If they haven't planned Thanksgiving and Christmas (travel), they need to do it now," Winn said. "Christmas this year falls on a Sunday, so some companies will either have people (employees) take off on Friday before or Monday after, which gives people a built-in travel day to be with their families. College students who fly home for Thanksgiving need to be booking those tickets right about now to make sure they can get a good rate and schedule they can live with."

Leisure travelers planning trips or cruises around Christmas or New Year's should be aware that many college students are off on Christmas break beginning Dec. 16, the Friday before Christmas weekend, Winn said.

"College students are headed home at that point so people wanting to leave on vacation, do cruises, are competing with all that traffic as well," Winn said.

Travelers will pay higher fares, which is the airlines' response to high fuel prices.

In September 2010, a 14- or 21-day advance purchase round-trip economy fare from Tulsa to Seattle was $210, schedules show.

This year, the same round-trip flight to Seattle, between Sept. 9 and Dec. 14, costs $395.

"After that, it's $425 - if you book early," Winn said. "You have to remember, they only have so many seats at the lowest fares."

Roger E. Block, president of Travel Leaders Franchise Group, said the company's travel survey found the five most popular domestic destinations for fall were Las Vegas, Orlando, Fla., Honolulu, New York City and Maui, Hawaii.

The top international destinations, the survey found, were cruises in the Caribbean, Cancun, Mexico, London, Rome and cruising the Mediterranean in Europe.