Continental Air raises roundtrip U.S. fares $10

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Continental Airlines Inc (CAL.N) raised U.S. domestic fares to offset soaring fuel costs, increasing the price of round-trip tickets by $10, a company spokesman said on Friday.

The increase affects most fare types and routes in the continental U.S., spokesman Dave Messing said.

Continental's move marks the sixth fare increase since the Labor Day weekend, which typically represents the end of the busy summer travel season.

"This number of increases in such a short time period shows that the legacy airlines are feeling pretty good about having the proper mix of domestic supply and demand as the holiday buying season winds down and do not want fuel prices to derail their recent financial successes," said Rick Seaney, chief executive of fare tracker FareCompare.com.

The recent spate of fare increases has been largely successful as rival carriers have broadly matched the moves.

U.S. crude oil futures roared to record highs on Friday, climbing above $92 a barrel, on the weak dollar and supply concerns.

(Reporting by Chris Reiter, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)