The U.S. Airports Where Flight Prices Have Surged the Most
Flight prices are more expensive everywhere, but some airports are even pricier than others.
We already know that airfare is up—even without the data from reports, it's hard not to feel the sting of those pricier flights when planning trips. But the added data doesn't hurt—a new LendingTree analysis just revealed that through the first quarter of 2023, the average ticket price was up by 9.8% compared to 2022.
But, even though there's an average increase of about 10%, prices have increased even more than that at quite a few airports across the country. According to LendingTree's analysis, flights out of Miami International and Portland International (Portland, Maine) saw average price increases of 23.9% and 22.3% respectively, from 2022 to 2023. Below are the four airports where prices have increased by more than 20% in the last year:
- Miami International, Miami
- Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine
- Southwest Florida International, Fort Myers, Florida
- Long Beach Airport, Long Beach, California
Beyond these top four, five additional airports saw the average cost of a flight in 2023 increase between 15% and 19% over the previous year. These include:
- Dane County Regional-Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin
- Bill and Hillary Clinton National-Adams Field, Little Rock, Arkansas
- City of Colorado Springs Municipal, Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Gerald R. Ford International, Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Myrtle Beach International, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
The Dane County airport in Madison also earned the distinction of being home to the highest average domestic airfares of anywhere in the nation this year, with flights averaging $537.70 each.
"It clearly proves how much Americans love to travel. Once people started to feel safe about traveling again after the darkest days of the pandemic, the floodgates opened and people headed to the airport in droves to make up for lost time," explained Matt Schulz, LendingTree chief credit analyst, in a statement to Thrillist.
Fortunately there are a few airports that had a drop in prices, year over year. Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York, had a price drop of 8.3%, which was the highest average price drop. The other four airports to see average price increases are Kahului, Lihue and Ellison Onizuka Kona International at Keahole, in Hawaii, and Metro Oakland International in California.
LendingTree advises that one of the ways to save money is to be flexible about which airport you book out of. "Flexibility is essential when looking for cheap flights since costs can fluctuate widely if you're willing to fly at an odd time or from another nearby airport," the LendingTree report states.
"If you have some wiggle room when it comes to travel days, times and destinations, you can save yourself some real money," Schulz said.
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