• Los Angeles Times, Friday, March 20, 2009 11:16 AM

Southwest Airlines yesterday slashed fares across its network for travel up to Aug. 14 but other major airlines -- including American, United and Delta -- quickly matched them on most routes they share, Peter Pae reports.

"This is a whopper of an airfare sale," says Tom Parsons, chief executive of air travel Web site Bestfares.com.

The latest fare deals are the broadest so far and include travel days that airlines often exempt from the discounts. The offers include deals for travel any day of the week except Fridays and Sundays, giving travelers five days out of the week to qualify for a low fare. They also extend through much of the summer.

In the past, most airlines also have been discounting business-class seats sharply, in some cases down to levels comparable to refundable, unrestricted, economy-class tickets. Even then, there hasn't been enough demand, so some airlines have begun pulling out business-class seats and replacing them with more economy seats.

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