Airline tickets soared this holiday season after a year of shutdowns and travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Arizona State University out-of-state students are now paying the price.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused close to three in 10 Americans to opt out of holiday travel in 2020, according to the 2021 Holiday Travel Report for NerdWallet.
With life slowly returning to normal, Americans are once again booking flights for this year’s holiday season. The number of holiday travelers this year is in close competition with the record-breaking holiday travel in 2019.
Leading up to this year’s Thanksgiving, the Transportation Security Administration expects nearly 1.9 million throughput travelers daily, which is around 75% of the 2019 Thanksgiving passenger levels of 2.5 million travelers per day. In 2020, the TSA passenger levels were only around 900,000 travelers throughput per day leading up to Thanksgiving, according to the 2021 Hopper Travel Guide Report.
For Thanksgiving, the expected national airfare ticket for travelers is around $300 round trip, a 23% increase compared to 2020 when airline tickets averaged around $245 round trip, according to the 2021 Hopper Travel Guide Report. In 2019, Thanksgiving airline tickets were priced at an average of $335, which is an 11% decrease from this year, according to the 2021 Hopper Travel Guide Report.
ASU Communications student Kayla Popkin is from New York City and plans to visit home for both Thanksgiving and ASU’s winter break.
For Thanksgiving travel, Popkin decided to take United Airlines from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, which cost $769 round trip.
“This is the most expensive flight home I have ever had. Usually, it only costs $250-$300,” Popkin said. “I am overly excited to go home and see my family for the first time since summer, but it is crazy that I had to spend almost $800 for five days at home.”
Similarly, ASU nursing student Ariana Santulis said, “My Thanksgiving flight home to Orange County from Phoenix is $430 total, and there were a lot less flight options available to me.”
The flight options drove her to choose another option.
“I am not very happy about the price of my plane tickets since I am a college student trying to save as much money as possible, which is why I decided to drive home for winter break this year instead of paying for another $400 round trip ticket to Orange County and back.”
Airlines price their tickets so they can maximize their total revenue. While airlines do not make their price determination algorithms public, factors include an individual’s class choice, the length of time the tickets were bought in advance, ticket sale demand, the length of the flight, and fuel and oil prices, according to Simple Flying.
After the lack of travelers during the COVID-19, airlines are compensating for the total revenue lost, which is why some individuals may be seeing high travel prices this holiday season, according to Simple Flying.
Last month, Southwest Airlines experienced over 2,000 flight cancellations due to staffing shortages. For the upcoming holiday season, Southwest Airlines offered its flight attendants, pilots and other operation employees new incentives to bypass possible flight cancellations again during this upcoming busy season, according to CNBC and an internal memo.
“The airline is also offering as much as triple pay to ground operations employees for working Thanksgiving and Christmas and double pay for overtime shifts between Nov. 17 through Nov. 30, and Dec. 17 through Jan. 3, up from time-and-a-half pay,” CNBC reported.
Phoenix is the third most booked domestic destination for Thanksgiving travel after Orlando, Fla., and Atlanta, Ga., according to the 2021 Hopper Travel Guide.
“We have been seeing passenger traffic increase to numbers very close to our record-breaking year of 2019,” Gregory E. Roybal, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport public relations officer, said. “Thanksgiving travel is historically our busiest period, so we expect to see high passenger traffic comparable to pre-pandemic levels.”
I am lucky enough to be in a position to afford this price, but nonetheless, it is something I feel guilty knowing that others cannot go home for Thanksgiving break due to the price,” Popkin said.
Contact the reporter pgaley@asu.edu.
