If you were eagerly awaiting domestic travel in the US this summer, you should be ready to shell out big bucks.
Prices for flights rose 33.3% in the last year, 18.6% in the month of April alone, according to new data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (pdf). That’s “the largest one-month increase since the inception of the series in 1963,” and far outpaces the already-high consumer index on all items of 8.3% from the year prior.
There isn’t just one reason for the increase. The airlines’ costs are higher—the price of fuel has risen 150% in the past year, according to the International Air Transport Association, and many airlines are contending with staff shortages that sometimes require higher worker pay. There’s also a spike in demand of people anxious to travel after two years of pandemic.
Though prices for international flights are also rising, there is some evidence that demand for them is not rising as quickly as demand for domestic flights.