Airfares Down 50 Percent Since 1978, Study Shows
http://www.askthepilot.com/cheaper-and-safer/
I choked a bit when I first read the title, but gave it a chance (I am a regular reader of the irregular (as I am becoming) Ask The Pilot) and was quite surprised. The graph (below, via a link) clearly shows the rather dramatic decrease in ticket prices over the years. While there has been a recent uptick, as can be seen there have been occasional upticks in the past that evened out and then later fell again, so there is a good chance we are still not at the bottom of real ticket prices…
For me airline travel was never that glamorous, it was just a more efficient way to get from hither to yon. I did enjoy (for the most part) the physical act of flying (I enjoy turbulence, though didn’t do so well on a puddle-jumping prop-job; however it did reek of engine exhaust inside). Even before 9/11 the rest of the airport experience wasn’t that great, the prices are high, the security stupid (orders of magnitude worse now, of course) and the sitting around boring as hell. However, back then, it wasn’t deemed necessary to get to the airport two or more hours early, so the sitting around bit was much shorter. After 9/11, of course, things have really gone in the toilet, experience wise, though thinking carefully about it, for the most part it is the _airport_ experience I dislike so much, not as much the _airplane_. I do feel that the seats are closer than they used to be, but I remember having to sit sideways pre 9/11 several times as well. The security experience and the consequential need to get to the airport so early is, I think, the real crux of my dislike, though the actual flight experience itself has steadily degraded (the airlines wanted to take away all the drinks, but the FAA required them to offer water to anyone who asks for free; keep that in mind if you want to save a buck).
Anyway, I figured I would ‘re tweet’ the blog post as I thought my reader(s) might find the article interesting, if counter intuitive.
Neither the trend nor the adjusted dollars agrees with my personal experiences. I must be an outlier.