Despite the fact that airline fare data from Sabre show SFO flights still being a premium price over Oakland ( average flight cost of $191 from San Francisco vs $120 for the same route via Oakland), is an SFO fare war brewing ?

According to a MarketWatch.com story this week there is ^[1] potential for one. SFO has lowered the costs of departures which had chased away carriers after the dotcom boom & post 9-11 travel declines. Now business indicators show a mild resurgence in SFO air traffic, with it’s new international terminal, luxury shopping options ^[2] & packed 747s leaving daily for 22 hour flights via Lufthansa to the outsourcing hub of Bangalore ^[3].

Recent national airline data reveals that discount carriers like Jetblue, Alaska, and Hawaiian all finished February with less of their seats filled than last year. These are just some of the indicators that point to a possible reduction in fares to stimulate travel.

Also in related SFO news … many airlines have announced new routes out of SFO, and all sorts of dirty deals & details after the jump…

SFO at night photo by Andrew Choy ^[4] licensed via Creative Commons ^[5]

Dublin based airline Aer Lingus said Friday it will begin nonstop service between San Francisco and Ireland pending approval of European & US regulators. That situation seems similar to Virgin America, an airline much hyped, but still awaiting federal approval to begin flying.

Jet Blue has plans for four daily nonstops from JFK to SFO coming in early May, and one daily flight from Logan in Beantown.

Qantas Airways, starting March 26, will increase its nonstop runs to San Francisco from Sydney, Australia to five times a week from three.

Denver based Frontier Airlines is adding SFO flights to Las Vegas in December.

Southwest says they will return to SFO as well since abandoning the airport in 2001.

Some Existing Airline deals out of SFO :

British Airways is offering summer business club class service from San Francisco to London for $2,833 RT including hotels if booked before April 26 (with details at http://www.ba.com/ussummer ^[6] )

Alaska Airlines is adding a summer nonstop flight between Anchorage & SFO from June 3 to August 20. Tix if purchased before the end of March, are as low as $205 for one-way travel.

Frontier Airlines can get ya to Chicago’s Midway airport for $171 RT ^[7] and deal is apparently good through February 9th, 2008 & any day of the week!

A reader has submitted info about Fare Compare ^[8] below, and a similar

tool in yer battle to find affordable fares may be Farecast Deals ^[9], a Seattle based web startup that’s analyzing the best time find fares in over 26 markets and alerts you via updates. They supposedly scientifically analyze data & trends in pricing, saving you the work of over 50,000 individual search queries to get you the best possible deals. They even offer a so-called FareGuard service when they can guarantee it’s the lowest fare feasible. If the price does indeed increase, within a 7 day period , customers can provide proof of purchase to Farecast and redeem the difference in price.

Cities currently being monitored by Fare Cast include Atlanta (ATL), Boston (BOS), Chicago (MDW, ORD), Dallas (DFW), Denver (DEN), Detroit (DTW), Houston (IAH), Indianapolis (IND), Las Vegas (LAS), Los Angeles (LAX, SNA, ONT, BUR, LGB), Miami (MIA, FLL, TPA), Minneapolis (MSP), New York (JFK, LGA, EWR), Orlando (MCO), Philadelphia (PHL), Phoenix (PHX), Portland (PDX), Raleigh Durham (RDU), Salt Lake City (SLC), San Diego (SAN), San Francisco (SFO, OAK, SJC), Seattle (SEA), St. Louis (STL), Tampa (TPA), West Palm Beach (PBI) and Washington DC (DCA, IAD, BWI).