By James Pilcher
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Many of the nation's major airlines, including Delta Air Lines, raised fares Friday by $5 each way to offset rising jet fuel costs.

But many experts were skeptical that the fare increases, one of many attempts in the past year by airlines to raise ticket prices, would stick for very long.

Continental Airlines started the move early Friday, and was followed by Delta and American Airlines. Northwest Airlines, which has traditionally resisted such price raises because of its relative financial health, sent mixed messages, according to Terry Trippler, author of the Web site Cheap-seats.com.

"With domestic revenue trends leading the industry, Northwest may be disinterested in aiding and abetting its competitors," wrote airline analyst Jamie Baker of JP Morgan in a note Friday.

A fare increase would be more than welcome for the revenue-starved airline industry, which has been dealing with a drop-off in demand and slumping prices since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Travelers flying out of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport paid the second-highest airfares in the country in the second quarter of last year, but even that average of $236 per round trip is down from four years ago.

Delta officials confirmed that they were matching the price increase, but would not speculate on how much more revenue such an increase would mean for the company, which lost $773 million in 2003 alone and has lost about $3 billion in the last three years.

But without Northwest to match, Baker doubted that the increase would last the weekend.

"Unless something changes, any reports that competing carriers such as American or Delta have taken the increase should be disregarded," Baker wrote. "With Northwest having blocked such increases, (they) will prove highly temporary."

E-mail jpilcher@enquirer.com