Priciest airports may surprise you
Wisconsin’s Dane County Regional had average fare of $512
With the spread of discount airlines across the country, some fliers have come to expect airfare deals. But those may have been hard to come by last year at a handful of airports that had the highest ticket prices in the U.S.
“When you have less competition, fewer seats and strong demand from a region, you have the ability to raise fares,” says Scott Miller, spokesman for Harrisburg International Airport in Pennsylvania, where the average domestic fare was $480.32 in the third quarter of 2015. That’s the second highest among the nation’s top 100 airports. “To the consumer, it’s frustrating because they have a facility they want to use, but not everybody can afford the high fare, and they’re forced to drive hours to fly.”
Only Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wis., topped Harrisburg, with an average domestic fare of $511.58. And while the others among the top five also tended to be smaller airports — Knoxville’s McGhee Tyson and Fresno Yosemite International Airport in California — there’s also a big airport on the list: Newark Liberty.
“Newark’s high fares can be explained in part by it being a fortress hub for United,” said travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt. United carried 68.4% of the airport’s passengers last year. “As a result, budget airlines such as Frontier and Spirit, which tend to offer lower fares, have a very limited presence.”
Newark also has numerous long-haul flights, which tend to be pricier. And airports like Newark that have a high proportion of business travelers often show higher average fares. That’s because business fliers typically pay more for last-minute bookings, or for seats in the premium cabins.
But another key factor behind some airports’ lofty fares is airlines having the upper hand when it comes to pricing. In Madison, for instance, Delta controls 52% of the market share, says Dane County Regional airport spokesman Brent McHenry, making it easier for the carrier to boost fares because of a lack of competition. And across the industry, airlines have fine-tuned the balance between the number of seats they offer and passenger demand, enabling them to charge more.
Knoxville’s McGhee-Tyson Airport is constantly on the search for new service in order to bring fares down, says airport spokeswoman Becky Huckaby. In May, low-cost carrier Allegiant will add two new routes to Baltimore and Las Vegas.
“We are always actively trying to recruit new service from incumbent carriers as well as new airlines to create competition, which has a positive impact on lowering airfares,” says Huckaby, adding that the airport is currently served by Allegiant, American, Delta and United and it has seasonal flights from Frontier.
Harrisburg International, which mirrors Knoxville in serving a significant number of business travelers, saw 1.2 million passengers last year, and Miller says it could handle 2 million fli- ers based on population and demand.
However, Frontier pulled up stakes in Harrisburg last year, shifting service to Philadelphia, Miller says. Several other airlines — Allegiant, Delta, American, United and Air Canada — remain, but they have “shrunk capacity to the point ... they can set fares at this level, and business travelers will pay for the convenience of using Harrisburg vs. driving,” though many fliers “not able to (pay) the premium, or who don’t want to, are forced to drive hours, and they do.”
The loss of passengers to Baltimore and Philadelphia affects the fortunes of both the Harrisburg airport and the broader community, Miller says.
There are other factors that influence ticket prices.
For instance, “Madison has a high percentage of business travelers,” McHenry says. “In comparison to leisure travelers, they book tickets very last-minute, routinely purchase first-class fares, as well as fully refundable tickets, which can inaccurately inflate the average ticket price” as calculated by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
The tax portion of a ticket has also risen, McHenry says. Currently 21% of a $300 ticket is taxes, according to the trade group Airlines for America. Still, overall, the average domestic ticket price in the third quarter of last year was $372, the lowest since 2010.
“Air travel remains one of the best consumer bargains out there, as evidenced by the increase in the number of people flying,” says Melanie Hinton, spokeswoman for Airlines for America.
“The strength of demand, as well as the cost of serving a specific airport, and competition is what ultimately drives traffic and fares.”