South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
US airfares are up 40% from January, and more increases are expected
U.S. domestic airfares have risen by 40% since January, according to analysts.
Roundtrip domestic flights are now averaging
$330, as compared with
$235 at the beginning of
2022, said analysts at travel comparison company Hopper.
That’s also an increase of 7% over 2019’s pre-pandemic pricing, making these the highest prices the company has seen since it started collecting this data. International fares are on par with 2019’s prices at an average of $810 roundtrip, but up by 25% from the $650 average seen at the start of the year.
The March 2022 edition of Hopper’s Consumer Airfare Index examined current airfare, airfare forecasts, the impact of jet fuel costs, top destinations for this summer and more.
Hopper said it expects roundtrip domestic airfare prices to remain at around
$320-$330 until the end of April, but it predicts prices increase 10% to $360 by the end of May and remain that way through June.
The company is forecasting that international fares will continue to match 2019 prices through May, but increase by about 15% from present prices and exceed
2019 prices by about 5% in June, bringing the average cost of a roundtrip ticket to
$940.
Based on the number of travel searches seen for late spring and early summer, the most popular domestic destinations seem to be New York City, Las Vegas, Orlando, Washington, D.C., Miami, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Denver and Chicago.
Among internet search users, the most soughtafter international destinations were revealed to be London, Paris, Cancun, San Juan, Mexico City, Rome, Manila, Delhi and Tokyo.