Independence Air has won plenty of notice among business travelers in its first two months with low fares and fun and friendly service.
But now it looks as if some of those fares have disappeared.
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That $59 walk-up, one-way ticket to Boston was replaced with a $119 fare. To get those $59 fares, travelers now have to book 14 days in advance.
The same goes for many of the fares to the cities Dulles-based Independence began serving in June. Debut walk-up fares of $29, $54 and $59 have nearly doubled. A walk-up fare to Burlington, Vt., went from $69 to $120. The walk-up fare to Albany, N.Y., from Dulles was $59; now it is $100.
Before Independence Air's fare changes, its ticket prices were about 80 percent lower than the fares of other airlines on the same routes. With the changes, Independence's fares are about 60 percent lower.
Independence Air executives said they changed prices to make more room available for last-minute business travelers. Eric Nordling, senior vice president of marketing, said many flights were selling out at the original prices, so many last-minute business travelers weren't able to get a seat.
Nordling said those cheaper fares are still available to travelers flying on Saturdays. So in essence, with the Saturday requirement and the 14-day advance purchase, Independence is adopting more of the price restrictions of the major airlines from which it vowed to differentiate itself. And that's not the only way it is changing its launch strategy.
Nordling said Independence is exploring the possibility of making its flights available for booking by travel agents, something it had said it would not do in order to keep the cost of selling tickets as low as possible. It also made its flight information available through the Official Airline Guide, because Independence executives discovered that business travelers use the guide as well as the Internet to plan their trips. Originally, Independence flight information and booking was available only through the company's Web site and by phone, a practice it adopted from low-fare leader Southwest Airlines.
"We are not geniuses," Nordling said. "We can't predict the future with perfect accuracy. We have made modifications to the business plan as they have become apparent that they were needed. And we'll continue to do that."
Independence began eliminating the lowest fares around the time it began expanding this month to other cities such as Detroit, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. The airline launched in June with 10 cities and now flies to 35 destinations.
