Airfares are rising across the country: here’s why

PITTSBURGH — If you plan to go on vacation this summer, airfares are outrageous right now.

Channel 11 spoke with a local travel agent about why flights are so expensive.

“I can tell you the domestic airfares are high. They are definitely higher than what they’ve been in a long time,” said Tom Diecks, Greater Pittsburgh Travel.

During the pandemic, several airlines changed their schedules and cut back on many flights, but now a lot of people want to travel again, especially this summer.

But flights are not as cheap as they used to be.

According to Hopper, the average price nationwide for a domestic flight this time last year was about $250. Now it’s nearly at $340.

An agent with Greater Pittsburgh Travel said airlines are trying to catch up with the high demand.

“And those seats fill up quickly and that determines how the airfares are based and why they seem to be higher,” said Diecks.

Diecks said there aren’t as many nonstop flights, either, so those are filling up quick, which is also driving up prices as well as connecting flights.

“Here in Pittsburgh, we don’t have any many nonstop flights as we used to so we have to make connections to various hubs for different airlines they can affect fares and pricing because so are other people making connections to these hubs,” said Diecks.

Diecks said low-cost carriers like Spirit are also impacted by the high cost of jet fuel, which has spiked 45% this year, according to Bloomberg.

What can you do to get the best deal?

“My best advice is do it whenever you can, as far in advance as you can, to be able to get the best pricing,” said Diecks.

Channel 11 also asked the travel agent when we can see a light at the end of the tunnel with these expensive flights, but he doesn’t expect airfares to go down anytime soon.

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