FuelClub Discount

AirTran Holdings Inc. boasts a 22 percent annual growth rate over the last five years and has nearly tripled its size from 2002.

So if AirTran says it’s time to slow down, things must be getting serious. And with a barrel of oil approaching $120, AirTran is saying it’s time to slow down.

“It is clear to us that our previous decisions to invest in growth and to invest in new airplanes has proven to be too aggressive for an oil environment that very few could have imagined just six months ago,” AirTran treasurer Arne Haak told investment analysts last week.
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Continental Airlines and most other major carriers matched fare increases of as much as 5 percent round trip Friday, following the lead of United Airlines.

The move comes as domestic carriers are looking for new revenue to combat escalating fuel costs.

Those costs this month helped propel Delta and Northwest airlines to announce a merger and have spurred talk of broader consolidation in the industry. But it remained unclear Friday how Houston-based Continental might participate.

The airline is still considering its “strategic options” in regard to mergers, Continental Chief Executive Larry Kellner told employees Friday in his weekly recorded message. He said he wanted to address rumors that have been swirling.
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