United, Delta double surcharges

United Airlines has doubled a surcharge it added to tickets last month to offset high fuel costs, a spokesman said Friday. Delta Air Lines quickly followed suit.

The move effectively raises round-trip fares by $10 and one-way tickets by $5. The increase applies to all U.S. states except Hawaii, United spokesman Jeff Kovick said.

Delta matched the increase this morning with the same terms, according to spokeswoman Chris Kelly.

Airlines have struggled to keep pace with increasing fuel costs, which have risen along with the price of crude oil in recent months. Fuel represents one of the airlines' biggest expenses.

United has said every dollar increase in the price of crude oil increases its annual costs by about $65 million.

The increase is the 11th the industry has attempted since Labor Day weekend, said Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com, a Web site the tracks airfares. Many of those increases were quickly matched by other airlines, but stiff competition has kept some of the increases from sticking over the long term.

Although the holiday season is one of the year's busiest travel periods, it is actually a slow time of year for ticket purchases, and several carriers have been offering sale prices on tickets for travel in January and February, Seaney said.

"I don't think I've ever seen an increase around Christmas," he said.

While jet fuel costs have increased, crude prices have actually backed off from the record levels seen late last month, when traders pushed prices to near $100 a barrel.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery rose $2.25 to settle at $93.31 a barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.