Bob CollinsCiting high fuel costs, the nation’s airlines — Northwest included — slapped a bunch of new fees on the traveling public. Now that oil has dropped below $100 a barrel and Northwest is predicting a $60 to $100 million profit in the quarter, the fees are going away, right?
No.
Northwest expects to make $150 million to $200 million per year because of the fees. Why give that up?
“It was only the reality of $140 oil that gave the U.S. industry the courage to pursue a strategy they wanted to pursue,” J.P. Morgan airline analyst Jamie Baker told the Wall St. Journal. “You hold onto it as long as you can until competitive pressures force you to back off.”
Things are a little different in Canada. There Air Canada has rolled back some fees.
