Prices have moved upward throughout the year. In October, airfares for domestic flights were up 2% compared to September and up 24% over 2019 levels, according to Adobe’s calculations.
Airfares have climbed much faster than overall inflation for several reasons. Russia’s war in Ukraine has driven up fuel costs and, in recent months, an extraordinarily strong rebound in travel demand has collided with massive challenges to supply, including labor shortages, aircraft delivery delays and other issues.
“After record spending on physical goods in the first two years of the pandemic, we see consumers shifting more significantly towards services such as air travel,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights. “We expect the momentum to carry through the holiday season, even as prices remain elevated above pre-pandemic levels.”
Up until now, passengers have been willing to pay higher ticket prices, which have more than offset airlines’ rising costs. But Adobe’s research indicates that consumers may finally be starting to chafe at sky-high ticket prices. Domestic flight bookings for the week of Thanksgiving are down 7% compared to 2019. And looking ahead to Christmas travel, domestic flight bookings are currently down 17% compared to where holiday reservations were at this time in 2019.
As I said, you can see the decline. Last year even when Ige aks people not to come, there were more people than you see now, this time of year.
One for the environment Air travel heavy pollution source Just saying