Tonight in the 8:00pm EDT airfare feed American, Continental & Delta match the new $5 one-way increase initiated by United at 10:00am this morning.

Continental raises fares by $3 one-way to add to is $2 fuel increase from Thursday to match.

The Continental fuel surcharge currently shows an end date of August 20^th for departures. Late August is typical for price breaks as the peak summer demand subsides as school begins to restart.

It is pretty obvious that the major airlines are feeling comfortable enough to try increases even though the lower cost airlines are not cooperating. If this increase sticks, many consumers will be paying $20 more than they were 2 weeks ago for the similar tickets. Weather delays, customer service dissatisfaction, highly publicized recent travel horror stories and packed planes have many air travelers on edge, it will be interesting to see if and when consumers begin to push back.