The summer travel season got off to a roaring start, fares are up, and money is rolling in from fees on things like checked baggage.

The six biggest U.S. airlines earned about $1.3 billion in the second quarter, and more profits are expected for the rest of the year. Even so, airlines are still woozy from the one-two punch of record-high fuel prices followed by a recession. Those six big carriers lost $22.7 billion in 2008 and 2009.

There were plenty of fare sales when the airlines were struggling to fill seats. Now those seats are in demand, so deals are less common. And travelers are paying for “extras” such as an aisle seat, checking bags and buying a ticket over the phone — things that used to be part of the fare.

Here’s a look at what travelers can expect in the months ahead:

FARES AND FEES

The airlines are hooked on fees after two years of using them to overcome, first, high fuel prices and then slumping travel demand. A new study shows that worldwide, carriers took in $13.5 billion from fees in 2009, a 43 percent jump in just one year.

“Fees are going to stick and they’re going to become more pervasive,” says Jay Sorensen, a former airline executive who is now president of consulting firm IdeaWorks, which did the study on fees.

United and American led the way on “ancillary revenue,” including fees, at about $1.8 billion apiece last year, according to IdeaWorks. United Airlines President John Tague calls fees “an unequivocal success,” and suggests his airline could still double the amount it’s bringing in with baggage fees.

Everyone is watching to see if travelers pay Spirit Airlines‘ fee of $45 for some carry-on bags on flights starting Aug. 1. Most of the big airlines have promised Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., they won’t follow Spirit’s lead.

Airlines have been able to boost ticket prices too. Summer fares are up an average of 18 percent, according to figures from a trade group for the big airlines.

Travel demand will taper off as fall approaches — Continental Airlines is already seeing that. Still, airlines will try to avoid slashing prices. Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com, says the airlines are getting better at waving sale prices in front of customers but selling most seats at higher fares.

PACKED PLANES

Planes are stuffed like never before. Including regional flights, Delta filled 88 percent of its seats in June, Continental sold 87 percent, and American 86 percent — that’s about 2 percentage points higher than last summer.

“Leisure demand has been strong, and we expect it will remain so throughout the remainder of the summer,” Continental CEO Jeff Smisek told analysts.

Continental also hinted that demand is trailing off. Advance bookings for the next six weeks are running behind the last year’s pace.

Normally when airlines start making money after a slump, they’re tempted to add new flights to snag returning travelers. This time might be different. Sluggish bookings and concern about the weak economic recovery will put pressure on airlines not to add flights that might operate half-empty.

Shares of Delta Air Lines Inc. were punished last week partly because the world’s biggest airline said it would increase passenger-carrying capacity up to 3 percent next year. Too soon, investors seemed to be saying. If the airlines add too many flights, it will increase their costs and push fares down.

Giving evidence to the same inquiry, Eliza Manningham-Buller revealed that there was such a surge of warnings of home-grown terrorist threats after the invasion of Iraq that MI5 asked for – and got – a 100 per cent increase in its budget. Baroness Manningham-Buller, who was director general of MI5 in 2002-07, told the Chilcot panel that MI5 started receiving a “substantially” higher volume of reports that young British Muslims being drawn to al-Qa’ida.

She told the inquiry: “Our involvement in Iraq radicalised, for want of a better word, a whole generation of young people – a few among a generation – who saw our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as being an attack on Islam.”

She added: “Arguably we gave Osama bin Laden his Iraqi jihad so that he was able to move into Iraq in a way that he was not before.”

Her words are in stark contrast to the claim that Mr Blair made in front of the same inquiry on 29 January. The former prime minister told Sir John Chilcot: “If I am asked whether I believe we are safer, more secure, that Iraq is better, that our own security is better, with Saddam and his two sons out of office and out of power, I believe indeed we are.

Clancie Ridley, 27, was one of 19 people killed at the Love Parade festival in the city of Duisburg, in western Germany, after crowds panicked in an access tunnel to the festival.

Austrek Tours spokesman Dean Choma says Ms Ridley worked for his company for a number of years.

“[She was a] very well liked kind of girl, really outgoing,” he said.

“She worked with us in our party buses as a tour guide and as a person who got the good photos of people having fun.”

Ms Ridley’s best friend Carla Perovich says she had been excited and looking forward to the festival.

Ms Perovich says Ms Ridley was less than a week into a three-month holiday.

“She texted me at Love Parade, she texted me just before she got there,” Ms Perovich said.

Wireless Internet service on airlines has not caught on, mostly because of the price. Travelers already paying $25 to check a bag and $20 for a roomier seat do not want to fork over $5 or more for Wi-Fi unless it is a necessity. They’re saving their Web surfing for solid ground, where “hot spots” offer the service without charge.

Airlines have offered promotions, including some free service, to draw attention to their Wi-Fi. But experts say only about 10 per cent of passengers on Web-enabled flights have taken advantage.

Airline technology consultant Michael Planey thinks Wi-Fi will be free as early as mid-2011. But if airlines want to go that route, there is a catch: They still have to compensate the service provider, such as Aircell, whose Gogo Inflight Internet serves every major airline except Southwest.

Planey thinks the airlines have a few options to cover the costs:

—Getting big companies like Google or Verizon to sponsor free Internet service. Those providers would make money through advertisements.

—Pay for some part of the service themselves, and then use it to cut costs. For example, a flight attendant could use the inflight Wi-Fi to connect with reservations at the terminal and make new arrangements for passengers who missed a connecting flight.

—Airlines could arrange ways to get a commission when travellers buy things online.

Planey predicts that discount carriers like JetBlue, AirTran and Southwest will stop charging first, promoting free Wi-Fi to win passengers away from bigger airlines.

The major airlines have equipped most of their planes with Wi-Fi and promoted the service. Prices of $4.95 to $12.95 aren’t exactly exorbitant, but passengers will not shell out money for something they don’t see as a necessity after paying higher airfares than last year and other fees, says Anne Banas, executive editor of SmartTravel.com.

Even business travellers, who tend to have more money and a stronger desire to be constantly connected, do not seem to be latching on to Wi-Fi service in big numbers. Banas thinks it is a problem with the logistics of working on an airplane: there is not enough wiggle room between the seats, or enough time in most cases between takeoff and landing, when laptops and smart phones have to be turned off and stowed.

“If it were easy, or if it were free, people would be much more likely to take advantage,” Banas said. “It’s just not there yet.”

For now, Banas thinks Wi-Fi on Amtrak, the U.S. passenger train service, which has more space and no worries about tucking things away for takeoff, is a better solution.

Amtrak has had Wi-Fi for about four months on its high-speed Acela trains in the Northeast Corridor. It is free, and Amtrak said it will stay that way.