A new data analysis predicts a bright 2024 air travel cost outlook. Airfares rose during the post-pandemic “revenge travel” rush of 2022 and early 2023 due to rising jet fuel prices and economic inflation.
According to Going.com, average airfare prices have dropped below pre-pandemic levels. It showed a 24% drop in airline seat prices since May 2022.
International flights remained high as the summer season approached, but domestic airfares began to drop in Spring 2023.
While 2024 is expected to be normal, flight prices returned to normal in 2023. The May 2022 flight price peak has disappeared, Going.com's Katy Nastro told Travel + Leisure.
Looking ahead, we don't expect major demand swings outside of typical peak seasons like the summer or winter holidays, as we saw in the last 18 months when post-pandemic pent-up travel demand drove prices up,” she said.
Flight prices have fallen for 13 of the past 18 months, according to an investigation. Costs are down 12% from last year.
Economists attribute this positive shift to a variety of factors, including fewer leisure travelers and a slow recovery of business travel.
According to KPMG's Chief Economist Diane Swonk, "T+L is a combination of less business travel, lower fuel prices, and more planes coming online."
Southwest Airlines stated in its October 2023 financial briefing that business travel was “below historical levels”.
In addition to these encouraging airfare trends, car rental rates have dropped 10.1 percent over the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index Report.