Airfares within U.S. hit new lows

CHICAGO – Airline prices have hit historic lows even though carriers have slashed capacity, new data show.

The average cost of a plane ticket within the United States plunged 9.1 percent to $315 during the first three months of 2009, the largest quarter-to-quarter drop ever recorded by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

In fact, passengers paid 5.1 percent less to travel on average during the early months of this year than they did during the same period in 1999, when fares averaged $332 – not adjusted for inflation, according to federal data.

As airline prices declined over the same 10-year period, the U.S. inflation rate rose 28.9 percent.

The greater transparency into pricing provided by Internet travel sites has made it difficult for carriers to boost prices this decade, as have discounters such as Southwest Airlines, AirTran and JetBlue Airways.

Carriers have also been hit by a steep drop in business travel since Wall Street collapsed in September 2008. Most have slashed expenses and grounded aircraft in response. Even so, major airlines such as Delta, American, United and Continental all saw revenue declines of greater than 20 percent during the second quarter of 2009.