Will airline ticket prices go down in the Fall?

Flying anywhere out of the US is expensive. The country is far from many tourist destinations, making flights long and certainly not cheap. This is not helped by large flight prices over summer when most people want to get away.

There are certainly better times to fly and one is coming up now; fall. Indeed, research from Hopper, a travel research company, says prices this fall are set to be 29% lower than fares this summer. The summer months are considered peak travel season, especially for leisure travelers, as families take vacations, and tourists explore.

This increased demand will wane towards the fall. Families with school-aged children are less likely to plan vacations, and many tourists have returned home. This reduced demand results in airlines lowering prices to attract passengers.

What this means in real terms is that tickets to Europe are down $330 on average and domestic trips are averaging $211 a ticket; a 31% and 29% respectively.

Why was this summer so expensive?

Prices were acutely high this summer as covid-19 restrictions could be counted on not returning. There was no risk in travelling abroad and consumers pounced on the opportunity.

“Consumer spending on tourism was stronger than expected, surging during what most contacts considered the last stage of pent-up demand for leisure travel from the pandemic era,” the Fed said in an economic snapshot.

The institution expects overall leisure spending to decrease before the end of the year.