If you’re planning summer travel, prepare for a price hike in airfare. A surge in domestic travel paired with the cost of fuel is already trickling down to the consumer.
Experts say the prices we see now are the prices we should get comfortable with in the coming months. And for the most part, consumers are expected to pay up.
Travel demand has bounced back much faster than expected this year. Delta, United and Southwest all airlines say bookings surged after the omicron variant subsided.
CNBC’s Airline Reporter Leslie Josephs tells us customers spent $6.6 billion on airline tickets, which was the first time since the start of the pandemic that sales exceeded a similar month prior to COVID.
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Jet fuel prices are up, and people are anxious to travel after two years for restrictions. Those factors combined make for ticket prices that won’t ease any time soon.
“The bargain days are behind us, unfortunately. The time to maybe do that is in the winter or the off-season,” said Josephs. “One thing that is really driving these prices is fuel cost. We saw prices at the highest level since 2008. That’s nearly an entire generation that hasn’t seen prices that high.”
Some travelers at DFW airport said they’re planning for summer travel even amid rising ticket prices.
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“We’ve got vacation planned this year. The prices are going to be what they are,” McKinney resident, David Douglas said. “You try to schedule as much out to the future, but with gas and oil process going up, it kind of it what it is.
Josephs said travel abroad has not quite bounced back to where it was pre-pandemic. Right now, it’s domestic travel driving the cost and demand of ticket sales.
