Summer airfares are surging at major air hubs. Here’s where prices are highest (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — America’s summer travel season is running headlong into the inflationary and supply-chain pressures upending many sectors of the economy — and it looks like passengers, particularly travelers on the West Coast, will be the ones footing the bill.
Recently released Consumer Price Index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found airline prices increased 12.6% in May on a month-to-month basis. Compared to May 2021, average airfares had increased 37.8%.
According to data from Hopper Inc., a provider of online travel services and data, airfare for the nation’s busiest airports are at recent highs. Data provided to The Business Journals found the average domestic roundtrip ticket at the 50-largest airports this summer is $431. On average, fares for the rest of June through Aug. 31 are 94% higher than 2021 levels and 66% higher than 2019 levels, according to Hopper data.
The pricing pressure largely stems from a disconnect in supply and demand for air travel; a combination of lower flight numbers and a surge in passenger traffic promise to keep planes packed for the foreseeable future. As of June 8, there were 1.99 million domestic flights scheduled for the summer travel period, from June 1 through Aug. 31. That total was 13% lower than pre-pandemic levels and a modest 3.6% bump over last year’s season, according to data from Cirium Inc., a provider of air travel and airport data and analytics.
In contrast, passenger volume is spiking. Through June 8, there had been a total of 247.3 million travelers pass through TSA checkpoints this year, up 53.5% from 2021. Passenger traffic still was off about 13 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels recorded through the same period in 2019.
Jet fuel also is contributing to the pricing volatility. In March, Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) President Glen Hauenstein said he expected price increases of “$15 to $20 a ticket on a fare of $200” due to fuel increases. Jet fuel rose from $2.16 per gallon on Jan. 1 to $4.19 at the beginning of June. Fuel is generally the second-biggest expense for carriers behind labor, according to airline experts.
West Coast inflation
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is among the airports to see the strongest price inflation to date. As of early June, the average roundtrip ticket out of Seatac was $583 for the summer, 176% higher than the $211 average recorded last summer and 156% higher than in 2019. In March, Seatac’s average fare for the summer months was $270 per roundtrip, according to Hopper.
Other West Coast hubs are seeing similar increases. Roundtrip flights out of Portland International Airport for the remainder of the summer were averaging $609 as of June 8, roughly double what they were averaging in March. Portland’s most-recent average was 166% higher than the same period in 2021 and was 120% greater than 2019 averages. Los Angeles International, the nation’s sixth busiest domestic airport in 2021, also is way up, averaging $531 per roundtrip. In 2019 that average was $209 for the summer months.
No surprise, Daniel K. Inouye Honolulu International also has seen some of the strongest increases in pricing. At $810 per domestic roundtrip as of June 8, the average flight out of Honolulu’s major airport — which often connects to West Coast hubs — was up 133% when comparing to summer 2021 and was 69% higher than 2019 levels. In March, the average roundtrip out of Honolulu for the summer months was $364, meaning average prices have soared $446, or 122.5%, in just three months, according to The Business Journals’ analysis.