Cirium, the premier aviation analytics company, has analyzed air ticket price trends into 2023 using Cirium FM Traffic. Economy class airfares in North America and Europe have generally increased since 2023, but are below the U.S. inflation rate.
Jeremy Bowen, CEO of Cirium, said: “While airfares in the US and Europe have increased in nominal terms, consumers will find that the increases are lower than for other consumer goods. Cirium’s data team will continue to monitor the impact of increased capacity in the market on airfares. , despite aircraft availability challenges due to groundings, engine issues or supply chain constraints.”
Cirium analyzed airfares in the U.S. domestic market (including 13 U.S. airlines), intra-European travel and transatlantic markets. Data are non-directional averages, are in U.S. dollars, and exclude taxes. Unless otherwise stated, fares shown are Economy Class fares.
U.S. Domestic Air Tickets
In 2023, the average U.S. domestic air ticket price on 13 airlines was $179.25, an increase of 9% from the 2019 average price of $164.63. It is worth noting that Cirium also analyzed changes in the U.S. Consumer Price Index based on data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in which the inflation rate from 2019 to 2023 was 19%. Therefore, the price increase of air tickets is lower than that of other consumer goods, which is 10% lower in actual price.
From August 2023, air ticket prices have dropped by approximately 4% compared to the same period in 2022. Fares in December 2023 will be 9% lower than in December 2022. U.S. domestic airfare data covers Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Airways, American Airlines, Avelo Airlines, Breeze Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Suncity Airlines and United Airlines.
Intra-European airfares
Intra-European airfares are 8% higher than in 2022 and 12% higher than in 2019. The average ticket price within Europe in 2023 is US$104.58 (approximately €96), compared with US$93.17 (approximately €85.70) in 2019, both excluding taxes and fees.
The average transatlantic
economy class fare in 2023 will be $435.17, compared with $410.75 in 2022 and $381.08 in 2019. This represents a 14% increase in 2023 compared to 2019. However, Cirium data shows that transatlantic business class ticket prices have dropped by 3% compared with 2019, and business class ticket prices in December 2023 have dropped by 7% compared with the same period in 2019. The average business class ticket in 2023 will be $1,845.
Transatlantic capacity increases
Cirium Diio Mi’s flight schedule data shows that the airline has increased capacity in 2023 compared with 2022 and is preparing to continue doing so in the summer of 2024. Compared with 2022, transatlantic airlines will increase their seats by 18% in 2023, and will add nearly 375,000 seats during the summer peak period in July 2024 compared with the same period in 2023. Among them, Air France and Delta Air Lines and Lufthansa will increase capacity. The move could lower ticket prices on some routes.