Travel | Breaking travel news

leisure fares by $2 to $4 each way to counter increases in fuel costs, spokeswoman Jean Medina said today.

Delta Air Lines Inc.

matched the move, spokeswoman Gina Laughlin said.

Spokesmen at AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, Continental Airlines Inc.

and Northwest Airlines Corp.

said their companies were studying the increase.

U.S.

carriers are trying to boost revenue and return to profitability after posting about $40 billion in losses in the past five years, partly because fares declined as discounters took away customers.

Carriers were also hurt by jet-fuel prices that jumped 79 percent in the past two years.

United spent three years in bankruptcy reducing costs before emerging last month.

``United just looked in the rearview mirror, and they do not want to go back from where they came,'' said Terry Trippler, who monitors fares for the Cheapseats.com Web site.

...

"Mr.

Bush is a very direct man, a man who always prefers action and results, and I appreciate these qualities," said Harper, a policy wonk who admits to being short on charisma.

He said Bush also recognised his share of responsibility for tensions that have existed with Canada in the past several years.

The prime minister did not elaborate.

Harper sparked mild amusement on Thursday when he toured Mayan ruins with Fox and Bush wearing a tan safari vest, prompting White House photographers to ask if he was a Secret Service man guarding the president.

Bush also seemed bored when Harper spoke to reporters in French for several minutes straight at the end of a bilateral meeting on Thursday, with no one interpreting for the president.

However the hiccup did not stop the two from agreeing to meet further, in Washington, later this s...