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A wave of fare sales has spread across the airline persistence in the early days of the new year as the weak economy continues to put affliction on carriers to fill seats even after they drastically reduced capacity and some expressed a willingness to cut more.

Many experts and even executives at some airlines had expected that after deep extent of room cuts went into power starting in September, the number of fare sales going forward would be fewer and farther betwixt. But fuel prices have come down significantly, and the weak economy has eroded challenge for deportment travel.

Even so, on average base airfares externality of the travel periods for the recently launched market fares are higher now than in the last small in number years, said Rick Seaney, mind of airfare-research site FareCompare.com. He distinguished there were 30 attempted airfare increases between summer 2007 and summer 2008, two-thirds of that were auspicious.

Common in January

It’s not unusual for airlines to announce fare sales in January — there were 17 or 18 announced in January 2008 — but what’s separate for several carriers this year is that the discounts are for travel extending as late as April, May or June, Seaney said. The sales endure January were typically instead of travel through March, he reported.

Seaney thinks uncertainty in the established order is the reason for the change. “They’re not sure what’s going to happen at the last minute,” Seaney said.

A maniple of major carriers and discount carriers have launched fare sales since Dec. 31. Others are expected to follow with sales of their own, or to at minutest match discounts offered by rivals attached competitive routes, Seaney said.

Among the sales:

• Discount carrier AirTran Airways aforesaid Tuesday it was offering a nationwide fare sale with one-way fares starting as low as $39. The fares, use for force through Jan. 15, are good for travel to and from Florida and San Juan, Puerto Rico, end March 11, while the whole of other sale fares are good for travel from one side May 20. AirTran operates seasonally from Seattle, flying directly to Atlanta, Milwaukee and Baltimore.

“We are unpunctual about the economy and we are trying to build business on the books for the winter and spring,” AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson said.

• Virgin America, a U.S.-controlled and operated airline that is a separate company from Virgin Atlantic, also announced a passage-money sale Tuesday for travel end June 10 to total of the cities the carrier serves. Virgin America flies from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

• JetBlue Airways is sacrifice a fare market involving more than 40 destinations in the Northeast, Florida, California and the Caribbean, some of which cause to fly direct from Sea-Tac. For most city pairs, travel must take place between Jan. 12 and April 1, said the airline in announcing the sale Monday.

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