With fuel costs up an industry average 64 percent over the past year and still going higher, airlines can’t seem to move fast enough to cut service or find ways to increase revenue. Another sign of that came last week with word that Tucson is going to lose non-stop flights to Spokane, Wash., as of June 4 and to Austin, Texas, and  Omaha, Neb., as of Aug. 23.

The flight eliminations are part of a 30 percent cutback by ExpressJet, announced Thursday (May 22) by President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Ream.

Spokeswoman Kristy Nicholas said ExpressJet will continue to have non-stop flights from Tucson to Kansas City, Ontario, Calif., Sacramento and San Antonio. Flights to Reno will switch to one-stop service through Ontario. A side benefit to the schedule readjustment is that Tucson will gain new one-stop direct flights to Monterey, Calif.

American Airlines made headlines with its announcement last week that it intends to start charging $15 to check the first piece of luggage as of June 15. More significantly, however, the airline said it’s going to cut more than twice as much service as it anticipated cutting just a month ago.

Alex Kovach, director of air service development for the Tucson Airport Authority, remains relatively optimistic the airport can get through the cuts with less pain than some other cities.

At American, which said it would accelerate the retirement of its MD-80s, the only type of plane it flies into Tucson, Kovach said it’s possible the airline will elminate one of its eight daily round-trips to Dallas-Fort Worth and possibly one of its three round-trips to Chicago O’Hare. But even at that, he said, it’s possible American may choose to fly fewer flights to Tucson but use larger planes.

As of last week, Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines had planned schedules with relatively minor adjustments for Tucson. At Delta, for example, the airline will switch to 142-passenger MD-88s for its two flights to Altanta, eliminating 82 seats a day from its current schedule that uses Boeing 757s.

The biggest question mark for Tucson involves Frontier, which flies twice a day to Denver and is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The airline is struggling to find debtor-in-possession financing.

United Airlines has already eliminated one flight a day to Denver. US Airways has dropped a round-trip to Phoenix, but as of June 3 is adding non-stop flights to Charlotte, N.C., its busiest hub.

Alaska and Northwest airlines are each only scheduled to operate one flight a day from Tucson this fall – though Alaska is adding a second flight to Seattle from June 8 to Sept. 6 – and those flights generally operate close to capacity.

Southwest is the one airline that has remained profitable but even it is challenged to maintain that status and says it is looking to maximize efficiency. Kovach says Southwest’s six-month-old daily non-stop flights to Oakland, Calif., are not quite up to projections, but it is getting more popular.

For business travelers, the airlines’ financial woes mean fares and other costs will increase. But this weekend - Memorial Day weekend - is the beginning of summer and booking vacation travel is going to be tricky. Advance-purchase tickets will still likely bring the lowest fares and the most choices. But buy too early in advance and a passenger could be left holding a ticket for a flight that’s been eliminated by the time the day fly arrives. Depending on the circumstances, the airline’s only obligation would be to offer a a refund.

FastPark, and relax

There’s a new parking option at Tucson International Airport: FastPark, 6970 S. Tucson Blvd. You’ll recognize it from its distinctive green, white and black signage. Ted Forsberg, marketing manager, says the emphasis at FastPark is on that first word, "fast," and that, he says, is what makes his lot attractive to business travelers.

Once a customer arrives and parks, a shuttle van takes passengers to the terminal in three to five minutes, in most cases. On the way back Forsberg says the trip should be even faster as FastPark will have shuttles constantly circling baggage claim.

"We never try to fill up our vans completely," Forsberg said. "That slows down the speed and we think that makes a difference to people."

The cost is $3.25 per day with one free day after eight days. Forsberg says construction is underway to add 910 covered spaces this summer, but the price for those spaces hasn’t been set yet.

A program called Relax for Rewards allows regular customers to register for free to earn points and be guaranteed the lowest parking rates. Also, during busy times such as holiday weekends, Forsberg says people registered in the program will be guaranteed a parking space.

Register for the reward program online at www.fastparkandrelax.com and enter the code 1020207. FastPark operates in 11 cities so make sure you register for Tucson. Forsberg said once a person signs up, they should receive their registration materials within two weeks.

Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237. Inside Business Travel appears the fourth week of each month.