ON MONDAY Delta and other major American airlines increased prices on first-class, business-class, and seven-day advance tickets in an apparent attempt to wring a few more bucks out of business travellers. Short flights went up $20 each way, medium-range flights went up $40 each way, and long-haul flights over 1,500 miles went up as much as $60 each way. Delta initiated the increase and was quickly followed by American, but by the end of the week, both airlines got cold feet and backed off the price increases. USA Today's Roger Yu explains:

The network airlines' most recent attempt to raise business travel fares was their second in as many weeks. They've also raised fares more broadly — affecting most of their seats and leisure travelers — five times since December.

But the airlines' failure this week may be a sign of the tentative pace of the recovery of business travel, which sank along with the economy in 2008.

Rick Seaney, the CEO of air-fare watchdog FareCompare.com, told Mr Yu that Southwest Airlines, America's largest discount carrier, seems to be in the driver's seat when it comes to fare increases this year. Southwest didn't raise its prices in two of the five rounds of increases in the past few months, and "If Southwest doesn't participate, [other airlines] tend to tiptoe around those [routes] to make sure they're at equilibrium with Southwest," Mr Seaney told Mr Yu.

The bottom line here is the same one Gulliver has been spouting for weeks: any economic recovery is far from solid, and the business-travel recovery is even more tenuous than the improvement in the broader economy. Airlines are still having trouble raising their prices. In the short term, that's good news for those of us who have jobs and are travelling—we're travelling cheaper and better. But in the long term, a more solidly grounded recovery would be good news for all of us. When the airlines start being able to raise their prices without blinking, we'll know we're really on the road to recovery.