Airline Fares Jumped Last Week (Almost No One Noticed)

The concept of “monkey see, monkey do” usually doesn’t lead a middling retailer to the top of the sales charts, but in the aviation industry, it can do a lot of the heavy lifting involved in not falling behind competitors.

According to Reuters, just about every major American airline raised its rates on Jan. 5 after a few pioneering carriers edged their prices up by an average value of just $3. Though Delta was the first to initiate fare increases, JPMorgan Analyst Jamie Baker told Reuters that it was Southwest, the second carrier to do so, that tipped the scales for the rest of the industry to follow.

“The industry has never met a Southwest fare increase it didn’t match, for as far back as our records go,” Baker said. “Just as Southwest often plays the spoiler role, competitors consistently follow Southwest’s lead to the upside.”

Joining Delta and Southwest on the price increase were American Airlines, United Continental and JetBlue. Together, these carriers represent more than 80 percent of all domestic U.S. flights, so it’s likely that only the savviest of travelers will be able to find a way to avoid the extra few bucks. However, most increases were limited to one-way flights, so family vacationers should be left unaffected.

Reuters did note that the spike comes at a time when U.S. carriers are under an ongoing investigation by the Justice Department for alleged collusion to limit flights and increase ticket prices. The last such industry-wide fare hike came in June 2015, and while there’s been little overt movement in terms of the investigation over the successive months, raising prices by $3 may be an indication of confidence from the airline industry — or merely a stronger desire not to fall behind the traditional and prevalent pricing trends in the face of government auditors.