Airfares Declined For The First Time In 2022

As per Hopper, affordable domestic airfares declined for the first time this year during the last month. Many major U.S. airlines have reduced their third-quarter schedules, per the Bloomberg Intelligence aviation industry expert George Ferguson, as a response to weaker demand.

“U.S. and European carriers are cutting capacity through the summer as demand for flights throttles back on higher fares, with inflation straining consumers and crimping spending power,” Ferguson wrote in an analysis late last week.

Budget domestic prices are presently averaging $390, down from $410 a month earlier, according to Hopper. Hopper defines budget fares as those that are less than 90% of the fare quotations it analyzes.

As said by Hopper economist Hayley Berg, “the fall is consistent with seasonally tendencies. Domestic fares often peak in May or June before falling in preparation for the off-season late summer and fall seasons. Nonetheless, local rates are 18% more than international ones”.

Budget international tickets, as said by Hopper, are steadily rising and have hit an average of $1,075. However, this development will now shortly flip. Berg stated that demand for overseas travel began to drop in late May.

Adobe Digital Insights determined that high prices had begun to impair summer domestic travel plans. Bookings for the summer months of June through August were down 2% from the same period in 2019. With rates up 30% over last year, spending on air travel increased by 29% in May.

Adobe derives its data from transactions at six of the ten top US carriers, which are then extrapolated to represent the whole market.

Thus, according to ARC data, any changes in air travel demand have had no discernible impact on US leisure travel advisors thus far.