Flights are getting more expensive as airlines scale back growth plans [Video]

Airlines are reporting better unit revenues for the tail end of summer, a sign customers will continue to have to shell out more to fly in the coming months.

Alaska Airlines on Thursday raised its third-quarter profit forecast to a range of $2.15 to $2.25 per share from a previous outlook of no more than $1.60 per share. It also said it expects unit revenue to rise by as much as 2% after previously estimating flat to “positive” unit revenue growth over last year.

Delta Air Lines said domestic and trans-Atlantic unit revenue would be up in September from last year, though it said the CrowdStrike outage in July will mean unit sales will rise no more than 1% compared with a previous forecast of as much as 4% higher for the quarter. Delta has said it expected a $500 million hit from the outage and its aftermath, when it canceled some 7,000 flights.

Alaska said …