Sun Country To Charge Passengers By The Mile

Sun Country Airlines has very quietly launched a new program where passengers pay $29 for a round trip flight, plus nine cents a mile. It's a new way of pricing airline travel and, if you belong to the company's "VIP Club," you pay the same rate right up until departure time -- no advanced purchase required.

There is a bit of a catch, though. Joining the VIP club costs $99, plus $12 a month. But the per-mile fares are comparable to tickets bought 21 days in advance.

"It's simple and that's what people want," said Terry Trippler, a travel expert with cheapseats.com. "For years, people have been saying, 'Can't you just charge by the mile?' Sun Country has said, 'Yes.'"

So where's the advantage? Trippler says there's an economy of scale. If you fly more than six times a year, this program could save money. "And if there is a seat on the plane, you get to go," he said. "No VIP member will wait at the gate and watch a plane back out with empty seats because the seats were in the wrong class (and unavailable as a reward for frequent fliers). The only way you won't get to go is if the plane is full."

It's the latest twist in an airline market that seems to be heating up, in spite of the 9/11 attacks and the slump that followed. If one thing has clearly emerged from the conflagration faced by the industry over the past two-and-a-half years, it's this: low-cost carriers are using innovation and strict cost-control to make major inroads against their legacy competitors.

If there's a thorn in the paw of this plan, however, it could be Sun Country itself. The airline doesn't fly to every destination every day, according to Trippler. "This isn't designed for the business traveler who wants to leave early in the morning and come home late in the afternoon."

But it's the kind of concept that might prove attractive to other low-fare carriers, where airlines price flights the way most GA pilots have always priced them: by the mile.

FMI: www.suncountry.com