The Sindex: Airfares Have Fallen Below Prepandemic Levels
The Reason Sindex tracks the price of vice: smoking, drinking, snacking, traveling, and more.
If you're tired of election bickering and would love to escape to a spot that isn't in the middle of campaign season, the Reason Sindex has good news for you: Flights are cheap! After a pandemic nosedive, airfares spiked in early 2022 but have since fallen below their prepandemic levels, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since January 2020, airline fares are down 10.2 percent, and in the last year alone are down 2.8 percent. Aside from the COVID-19 era, flights haven't been this cheap since mid-2009, amid the Great Recession. Consider what you're getting on those flights too: Airlines are increasingly offering free Wi-Fi and movies or TV to watch, even to flyers with the cheapest tickets. These and the rest of the numbers in the Reason Sindex use data from July 2024.
| Category | Change since January 2020 | Change in last year |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Inflation | 21.1% | 2.9% |
| Tobacco and smoking products | 34.9% | 7.9% |
| Cable, satellite, and livestreaming services | 17.9% | 1.6% |
| Medicinal drugs | 7.9% | 2.9% |
| Meats | 28.0% | 3.1% |
| Televisions | -24.1% | -5.4% |
| Cigarettes | 36.7% | 8.5% |
| Sugar and sweets | 27.4% | 1.8% |
| Airline fares | -10.2% | -2.8% |
| Gasoline, unleaded regular | 24.5% | -2.3% |
| Prescription drugs | 4.6% | 2.5% |
| Alcoholic beverages (At home) | 11.7% | 2.0% |
| Alcoholic beverages (Away from home) | 19.4% | 2.0% |
This article originally appeared in print under the headline "Fly, Don't Run, Away."
