City-pair contracts offer deep discounts to federal travelers

The cost of plane tickets for federal travelers will be even lower in fiscal 2003 under the new city-pair airline contracts awarded Thursday by the General Services Administration. Federal travelers will spend an average of 72 percent less than unrestricted coach fare tickets offered to the general public when they use designated city-pair routes. GSA's Federal Supply Service awards the city-pair airline contracts to make cheap rates available for those traveling on government business. The contracts are awarded competitively, with awards based on the best overall value to the government. The best-value decision is determined on the basis of average flight time, the offered price, flight distribution and number of flights. Nearly 5,000 city-pair routes will be available to federal fliers in fiscal 2003. Discounted rates include $34 one-way from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Washington's Reagan National Airport (down from $40 last year); $290 one-way from Honolulu to San Diego; $128 one-way from Atlanta to Baltimore; and $164 one-way from Colorado Springs, Colo., to Los Angeles. The tickets require no advance purchase and have no minimum or maximum stay requirements, travel time limits, charges for cancellations or blackout periods. The terms of the agreements are so favorable to travelers that airlines won't be offering the rates to government contractors. Because federal employees said they wanted more nonstop flights, GSA awarded nonstop service for 1,732 routes. A new feature introduced by GSA last year was expanded to include more routes this year. The program offers prices even lower than the already discounted federal rates for a limited number of seats in 2,041 test markets. The restricted fares are anywhere from $20 to $100 less expensive than the traditional unrestricted, or "walk-up," rates available to federal travelers. For example, the "earlybird" one-way fare from Atlanta to Baltimore is just $98. The reduced fares are available only for a limited number of seats and federal travelers have to book early. There are no cancellation fees on the special discounted fares. Travelers can still buy tickets under standard government rates at the last minute if seats are available, and unrestricted standard fares will continue to be available in the test markets. The following airlines were awarded city-pair contracts: Air Tran Airways, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, America Trans Air, America West Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Midwest Express Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways.