NEW YORK — The price to board an airliner in the United States has risen for the fourth consecutive year, making it increasingly expensive to fly almost anywhere.
NEW YORK — The price to board an airliner in the United States has risen for the fourth consecutive year, making it increasingly expensive to fly almost anywhere.
The average domestic roundtrip ticket, including tax, reached $363.42 last year, up more than $7 from the prior year, according to an Associated Press analysis of travel data collected from millions of flights throughout the country.
The 2 percent increase outpaced inflation, which stood at 1.5 percent.
Airfares have risen nearly 12 percent since their low in the depths of the Great Recession in 2009, when adjusted for inflation, the analysis showed.
Ticket prices increased as airlines eliminated unprofitable routes, packed more passengers into planes and merged with one another, providing travelers with fewer options.
Today, 84 percent of seats are filled with paying passengers, up from 82 percent in 2009.
“Anyone traveling today will know that those flights are full,” said Chuck Thackston, managing director of data and analytics for the Airlines Reporting Corp, which processes ticket transactions for airlines and more than 9,400 travel agencies, including websites such as Expedia and Orbitz. “Just through supply and demand, those fares will go up.”
And none of this factors in the bevy of extra fees travelers now face for checking bags, getting extra legroom or even purchasing a blanket, meal or pair of headphones. The typical traveler pays an additional $50 roundtrip to check a single suitcase.
Those fees, introduced in 2008 to offset losses from rising fuel prices, now bring in $3.4 billion a year for U.S. airlines and helped them return consistent annual profits for the last four years.
Airlines pay just more than $3 a gallon for jet fuel, up from $1.89 in 2009. Another $2.7 billion a year is collected in reservation-change fees, with airlines charging up to $200 to revise an itinerary.
“I love to travel, but they’re making it more difficult,” said Brian Kalish, a frequent flier from Arlington, Va. “Maybe I’ve been spoiled that it used to be so cheap to fly. It just feels like they are charging more and giving less.”