Average airfares over time

[WildcatPilot]

Can anyone point me to a site showing official numbers for the average price of an airline ticket over the past 20 or 30 years? I'm not having any luck with Google. I'm trying to rebut an email I got talking about how airlines keep raising their prices while cutting services.

This is the quote from it-

"There is no place I want to or have to go badly enough to make any habit of GIVING MY BUSINESS to these thieves who keep jacking up prices and cutting back services, all the while frisking my grandmother and allowing guys with bombs in their Tightie whities to board."

I agree they're cutting services like meals, but I was under the impression airfares have declined when taking inflation into account.

 

[derg]

Oh man, I hope you're not buying any consumer products in the grocery store. Seen the price difference on the 'redesigned' (read: smaller) orange juice containers? Or the 12 ounce "pound" bag of coffee?

 

[WildcatPilot]

Oh man, I hope you're not buying any consumer products in the grocery store. Seen the price difference on the 'redesigned' (read: smaller) orange juice containers? Or the 12 ounce "pound" bag of coffee?

:yup:

I thought I'd read it on here at some point, but I'll be the first to admit if I'm wrong.

 

[Minuteman]

National-Level ATPI Series

The Air Travel Price Index is a quarterly measure of change in airfares since the first quarter of 1995. The index is based on fares paid by travelers and draws its data from the Passenger Origin and Destination (O&D) Survey. Through this survey, BTS collects information from the airlines on a 10% sample of airline tickets. Because of changes in O&D Survey reporting procedures during 1997 and 1998, some ATPI series may show spurious changes during this period.

The index does not appear to account for inflation. One dollar in 1995 is worth about $1.41 today.

If my math is right (not a given!) the current value of the index divided by the decreased value of a dollar you get:

110 / (1.41/1.00) = 78 ... fares are 22% cheaper than in 1995?