US: Airlines are succeeding more this year at raising your fare

US airlines’ efforts to increase fares are meeting with more success this year than during the previous three, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Tuesday. Airline shares rose the most in eight months. JetBlue Airways raised domestic fares $3 one way Monday excluding its premium product, JPMorgan analyst Jamie Baker said in a note to clients Tuesday. American, Delta, United, Southwest, Alaska and Virgin America airlines matched the change on routes where their services overlap with JetBlue’s, Baker said. Carriers typically roll back attempted price increases within a day or two if other airlines don’t follow suit. Airlines are trying to reverse more than a year of annual declines in revenue from each seat flown a mile, a critical yardstick known in the industry as RASM. This week’s move is the sixth lasting airfare increase in 12 tries this year, for a 50% success rate, according to the report. Carriers were only able to maintain higher prices in 18% of their attempts in the 2013-2015 period, Baker said. “We remain of the view that we are on the cusp of a definitive domestic RASM inflection point, most likely in the mid-to-late summer time period,” Baker said. “While no single fare increase is likely to materially elevate RASM from its doldrums, self-help efforts should, in our view, assuage investor fears that pricing departments are somehow asleep at the switch.”<br/>