Holiday airfares flying higher

By Gary Stoller
November 8, 2010

Many fliers will pay more — sometimes half as much more — for airline tickets this holiday season.

On some routes, fares are up to 59% higher than last year for travel before Thanksgiving and up to 40% higher before Christmas, according to an analysis by travel site FareCompare.com.

"Domestic airfares hit bottom in May 2009, were relatively low for Thanksgiving last year and now have crept up," says Rick Seaney, president of FareCompare.com.

The reason: Consumers who stopped flying during the recession are taking to the air, and airlines have reduced the number of seats available in the past few years to cut costs, Seaney says.
Overall, FareCompare says, domestic airfares are up an average of 17% for travel late this month, late December and early January over a year ago. That analysis was of fares between 50 cities. Many popular routes are more expensive to fly, Seaney says.

At USA TODAY's request, FareCompare analyzed the cheapest non-stop coach fares on 10 popular domestic routes connecting to such major hubs as Atlanta, Dallas, New York and Los Angeles. The airfares were valid Nov. 1 for flights departing one day before Thanksgiving and two days before Christmas.

On Nov. 1, the cheapest non-stop, round-trip ticket between Boston and Minneapolis was $859 for a Nov. 24 departure and a Nov. 28 return. That price on Delta Air Lines was 59% more expensive than for the same days last year.

It was also 59% more expensive on Nov. 1 to fly between Philadelphia and Orlando, departing Nov. 24 and returning Nov. 28. US Airways and AirTran Airways were charging $522 for the cheapest non-stop ticket, compared with $328 last year.

For all 10 routes analyzed by FareCompare.com, the cheapest non-stop, round-trip ticket for Thanksgiving travel was higher than last year. The price was at least 13% more on nine routes.
Ticket prices for Christmas travel are also more expensive on all 10 routes.

Orbitz , the giant online travel agent, also reports more expensive holiday fares. It analyzed three major routes — New York-Los Angeles, New York-San Francisco and Chicago-San Francisco — and found average airfares for tickets booked through Oct. 1 were up to 30% higher for travel during the upcoming Christmas and New Year's season.

For round-trip New York-San Francisco flights from Dec. 23 through Jan. 1, Orbitz customers paid an average of $496 — 30% more than last year.

Orbitz says the busiest days to fly during the Christmas season will be Dec. 23 and Dec. 26, and the lightest days will be Dec. 24 and Dec. 31. The travel agent makes such determinations based on the number of tickets it has sold.

Based on bookings through Oct. 1, Orbitz says the most expensive day to fly will be Dec. 26. Orbitz customers departing on domestic flights that day paid an average round-trip fare of $717. The least expensive day to fly will be Dec. 31, when customers paid an average round-trip fare of $439.

Budget Travel inc 2010 Airfare News Index:
Autumn, Summer
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