Family Life

11.03.09 | FL News Team

It's going to cost you more to fly home for the holidays. "USA Today" reports Delta, Northwest, American and United are doubling the surcharge they've imposed for the busiest travel days around Christmas and New Year's. That means travellers will pay 20-dollars each way instead of ten for some air routes beginning near Thanksgiving. The new surcharges come just one week after the same airlines matched some of the lowest fare sale prices in years for winter travel. Last week's sales, which began with Southwest and AirTran, were matched by other airlines on most routes. The sales were designed to fill seats on planes during the slow travel days of early December as well as the mid-January through early February travel period.

Industry watchers say the surcharges are also designed to help airlines cope with rising fuel prices. Last week, jet fuel averaged two-dollars-nine-cents a gallon on the spot market, seven-cents a gallon below last year's record high average price of 2-16.