Air fares for business expected to climb

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NEW YORK, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- A stronger global economy means a climb in airline rates for business travelers for U.S. domestic and for international flights, a trade group said.

The Global Business Travel Association predicted a 4.3 percent rise in domestic fares for 2013 and an 8.3 percent rise for international fares, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

Delta Airlines got the ball rolling on price increases for the year already. The airline added as much as $10 to the price of flights booked within a week of departure, a segment that has a significant percentage of business travelers.

FareCompare said that within a week of that price bump, every other major U.S. carrier had fallen into step with increases of their own.

When prices escalate, they tend to do so once approximately once every two months. But attempts to break into a new price plateau are not always successful and if too few airlines follow suit, then an individual airline may have to back down from an attempt to charge higher prices.

In 2012, prices rose across the board in seven out of 15 price hikes attempts, the newspaper said.