Southwest (LUV) Joins (DAL), (JBLU), (AAI), in Boosting Fares

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) is the latest of the numerous airlines to boost fares in response to rising fuel costs, joining JetBlue (NASDAQ:JBLU), AirTran (NYSE:AAI), Delta (NYSE:DAL) and Virgin America.

Domestic round-trip airfares were increased by Southwest by $10.

Jet fuel prices have jumped over than 50 percent in the last year to more than $3 a gallon, although the majority of airlines have offset some of the boost in prices via hedging - where they're basically paying extra to lock in the top price they'll pay for some of their fuel.

After Southwest announced its rate hike, competitors in the same markets raised their prices as well.

Southwest was trading at $11.75, down $0.05, or 0.42 percent, as of 2:44 PM EST.