I saw this today and thought it was interesting.
Kim
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_577448.html
Think it's expensive to fly now?
Tickets cost about the same as they did eight years ago.
For all the recent talk that airfares keep catapulting upward, the average price to fly 1,000 miles domestically is about 50 cents less today than in 2000, despite the price of jet fuel rising more than 260 percent during that time, according to the Washington-based Air Transport Association, which represents major U.S. airlines.
In 2000, passengers paid nearly $153 to fly 1,000 miles, the association said. The cost in May, the most recent figures available, was about $152.50, the group said.
Seems counterintuitive, doesn't it? Flip on the television or click through any number of Web sites, and the only news about airline fares is that they're going up, up and away.
"You take a sample of 10 people buying tickets today, and all 10 would say, 'Gosh, I'm spending more than I used to. There's no question (prices) are up,' " said Rick Seaney, CEO of Dallas-based Farecompare, which tracks airline prices.
Greg Kist of Parkersburg, W.Va., who stood with arms crossed and foot tapping at a ticketing line at Pittsburgh International Airport recently, said he thinks he's spending more than ever to fly these days -- and he began ticking off the reasons on his fingers: cost of jet fuel, a limping economy, those darned airlines.
But Kist, 46, acknowledged that he doesn't always remember what things cost last month, or last year.
"You're not going to remember the last price you saw years ago, may it be for a (plane) ticket or a refrigerator," said Kist, who was traveling to Albuquerque, N.M., for a Boy Scout symposium. "You're going to remember the price you just saw."
Added David Castelveter, an Air Transport Association analyst: "At the end of the day, people aren't adjusting to 2000, to 2005 -- they're adjusting to now. And over the last months, everything's higher. The average person doesn't compare to 2000."
That makes Roger King of Ford City distinct. King, who sat in a restaurant at the Pittsburgh airport, said he's not surprised it's slightly cheaper to travel these days than in 2000.
"It's supply and demand," he said. "There are more choices and more flights today, so of course it's cheaper."
During the past decade, the average price to fly 1,000 miles dropped after 9/11, reaching its low point of $128 in 2004. The amount rose to $145.50 in 2007.
The price of jet fuel has skyrocketed from 90 cents per gallon eight years ago to $3.30 today, Air Transport Association records show.
Randy Petersen, a frequent flyer expert for Inside Flyer Magazine, said carriers can't raise fares much higher than they are because they would risk losing travelers.
But passengers are paying new fees as fares get "unbundled." Checking luggage and having an in-flight soft drink cost extra on many airlines.
"While consumers are paying roughly the same for domestic airfares as they were in 2000, the same cannot be said for airlines' operating costs, especially fuel, which now costs us $299 per customer carried on average," US Airways President Scott Kirby said in announcing the airline's new charges last month. "The 'pay for what you choose and use' model ensures that only the customers that want such services bear those costs. While new and different, this model ensures that competitive and affordable travel remains intact across our system."
Seaney, of Farecompare, said carriers have put forth a "ridiculously high" number of "attempted" price increases this year -- meaning that one airline tested the waters with a higher fare, only to rescind it upon realizing competitors wouldn't match the increase.
In 2007, airlines put forth 23 attempted price increases. There have been 21 this year -- 15 of which went through, according to Farecompare. Forty could occur before the end of the year, according to the site's tracking data.
"The airlines cannot continue for long operating on the cost of oil without raising prices," Seaney said. "They have no other way of recouping."
I'm dying to give that place a try. Pete, are ya listening, er, reading?
