The Air Transport Association (ATA) Office of Economics reports that average domestic airfares rose 0.5 percent in September 2002, but remained 17.8 percent below the same month in 2000. Average international airfares were up 4.2 percent from 2001, but down 6.1 percent from 2000. The average fare for a 1,000-mile domestic trip was $119.83 and the average fare for a 4,000-mile international trip was $409.30 in September.

“Passengers are currently enjoying airline prices that have not been available since the late 1980s, excluding federal taxes and fees,” said ATA Chief Economist David A. Swierenga. “Unfortunately, higher taxes and fees are offsetting some lower airline prices as the industry struggles to regain its traffic.”

The report, released today, includes average domestic coach-class and first/business-class ticket prices and domestic and international average ticket prices overall. Information in the report is compiled from actual prices paid by consumers, which are provided by air carriers to ATA. Airfares are normalized for a 1,000-mile trip domestically and a 4,000-mile trip internationally. The airfare information in this report does not include local, federal or foreign taxes.

Price changes are updated monthly and are compared to the same period of the previous year. Because of strong seasonal differences in airfares, month-to-month comparisons are less useful than comparisons for the same period a year earlier.

The Air Transport Association of America, Inc. is the trade association for leading U.S. airlines. ATA members transport over 95 percent of all the passenger and cargo traffic in the United States.

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