One Way Fare

As a crimson-and-gold 737 roars down the runway, the Air Force anthem blares in the background. The camera closes in on Commander in Chief Herb Kelleher sitting in a control room."

BWI's coming back to Earth.The bargain fares that transformed Baltimore's once sleepy airport into the nation's fastest growing are nudging upward."Your boom days are over. The bargain days there are gone," said Melisssa Abernathy, a spokeswoman for American Express Travel Related Services in New York.While airfares at BWI remain lower than those at many cities, they are rising at a much faster pace. Between February and March this year, the average one-way fare from Baltimore to six key cities jumped 15 percent, according to a recent American Express survey.

If you had a bad flight experience recently, you're traveling in growing company. A recently released Airline Quality Rating survey for 2005 found that carriers overall were more likely to run behind schedule, bump passengers and mishandle baggage than in the year before. Passenger complaints also rose, with nearly half of them dealing with flight problems or baggage issues. "Just prepare yourself. This summer will be a lot worse," said Dean Headley, an associate professor of marketing at Wichita State University and co-author of the Airline Quality survey.

Southwest Airlines unveiled yesterday the schedule and fares for its service to begin this spring in Philadelphia, a schedule that analysts said could lure some travelers who now drive to Baltimore-Washington International Airport for the airline's cheap fares. The promotions and hoopla of a new hub opening might benefit BWI enough to balance it out, however. "It's like a rising tide will lift all boats: The fact that [Southwest] is expanding more and becoming a larger airline will help BWI as much as the Philadelphia thing will hurt it," said David S. Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association in Washington.

For 30 years, Southwest Airlines Co. has confounded competitors by offering cheap fares on short flights. Saddled with higher operating costs, major carriers have taken solace in the fact that the no-frills airline doesn't fly cross-country nonstop. That's about to change. Beginning Sept. 15, Dallas-based Southwest will offer twice-daily nonstop flights between Baltimore-Washington International Airport, where it is the dominant carrier, and Los Angeles International Airport for $99 each way. It will mark the first time the airline has offered regularly scheduled nonstop coast-to-coast service.

Ramin Bahrani's Goodbye Solo is the best in a stream of new independent movies, including Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy, that bring feature films the intimate focus and sneaky power of regionally flavored short stories - the sort you'd find in a first-class magazine such as Oxford American. It's intelligent and emotional, not studied or sappy. Bahrani wrings honest humor and meaning from a two-character tale. The movie is about farewells and flying solo. It's also about the mistake of treating a certain span of life as a bye week in a sports season.

To accommodate commuters, the Mass Transit Administration of the Maryland Department of Transportation has changed one bus stop on the No. 929 route running from Columbia to Silver Spring and Washington.The route operates from the State Highway Adminstration's new 416-space park-and-ride facility along Route 216 on Scaggsville Road in Howard County.This stop replaces the previous stop off U.S. 29.The schedule and one-way fare of $3 remain the same.2& Information: 442-1330 or 539-5000.POLICE LOG* Kings Contrivance: 9000 block of Early April Way: A 1993 Mitsubishi Mirage stolen Monday or before was recovered in Prince George's County Tuesday, police said.

The State Highway Administration has completed the 416-space park-and-ride lot along Maryland Route 216, Scaggsville Road in Howard County.The project also includes an access road with acceleration and deceleration lanes along Route 216 west of U.S. 29 to accommodate park-and-ride traffic and lighting.The Mass Transit Administration's 929 Bus Route, Columbia to Silver Spring to Washington, will begin operating from the lot today. The park-and-ride replaces the stop across the street off U.S. 29. The schedule and one-way $3 fare remain the same.

From Crabtown to the Big Apple for $6.95.For about the price of lunch at a fast-food restaurant along the New Jersey Turnpike, travelers can board a Peter Pan Trailways bus at an East Baltimore depot for the 3 1/2 -hour trek to New York.The new discount fare, which a Peter Pan spokesman, Michael Paton, said is designed to introduce the bus company's service to the Baltimore area, is lower than the carrier had originally intended.In a press release faxed from its headquarters in Springfield, Mass.

Southwest Airlines announced yesterday that it will begin flying to Raleigh, N.C., further expanding its presence on the East Coast and fueling more growth at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.The airline will fly 12 daily flights to Raleigh-Durham International Airport beginning June 6, including four daily flights from BWI.Airline officials said they were drawn to the Raleigh-Durham region's mix of business and leisure travelers, plus its proximity to four major universities. The new service also rounds out coverage in the Southeast for the Dallas carrier, which serves Nashville, Tenn.