Flying has actually gotten cheaper over the last 20 years — let that sink in for a second.
The US Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics compiled the average domestic airfare of US airports from 1995 to 2015, taking inflation into consideration, and shockingly proved that with a few ups and downs, over the last 20 years the average cost of a flight has generally decreased.
The reasoning behind this is that competition has been driving fares down and airlines are struggling to make a profit — despite packing people into economy like livestock. This has been a trend since the US airline industry was deregulated in 1978.
To prove it, we chose the five busiest US airports — Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York — and plotted the price of their average airfare over the last 20 years on a graph.
Take a look below.
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