Airlines drop ticket prices amid slow summer

Discount airlines Southwest, AirTran and Frontier started a mega-sale early this week. Delta and the rest of the big airlines followed suit.

As a result, FareCompare.com CEO Rick Seaney said, “This has been a great week for consumers to shop. It’s a great time to shop for fall travel and there are still a lot of good deals for this summer.”

Seaney just tweeted his “most ridiculous” fare of the day: Atlanta-Miami roundtrip for $77, including taxes and fees, on AirTran.

But be warned: AirTran’s sale expires at midnight tonight.

For flights in September, you can fly roundtrip to New York City or Dallas for $169, Denver or Phoenix for $219, and Las Vegas for $258.

Fares rose in June for the first time all year, but the airlines were forced to offer sales again due to light fall bookings.

“Things are so precarious and chaotic with the recession, they’re worried about the fall and they want to get people in the seats,” Seaney said.

Many airlines have cut flight capacity for the fall, too.

Delta’s passenger traffic dropped 6.3 percent in June compared to a year ago. AirTran’s dropped 6.5 percent.