Major carriers boost air ticket prices

SAN FRANCISCO, May 24 (UPI) -- U.S. air travelers Saturday were paying up to $60 more for roundtrip domestic flights on United, Delta and American airlines thanks to rising fuel costs.

The skyrocketing cost of oil has forced the three major carriers to institute the price hikes, which work out to $60 for trips of more than 1,500 miles and $10 for journeys of less than 800 miles, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday.

With crude oil prices reaching $130 per barrel even the newest round of ticket price hikes isn't enough to offset the financial hit the airlines are taking on fuel costs, company officials said.

"Today's revenue sources for airlines, both in fares and fees, are still not covering the cost of providing the product, and it is all driven by insane fuel prices," Tim Smith, a spokesman for American Airlines told the Chronicle.

United Airlines plans to spend $2 billion more on fuel this year than it did in 2007.