Airlines Drop Fall Fares to Lure More Fliers

It’s a tried-and-true business practice that goes back centuries – drop the price and hope that the difference is made up with more volume.

That’s what airlines appear to be doing in order to lure more passengers during what is usually a downtime for leisure travelers, according to Business Insider.

While the spring and summer turned out to be a boon for carriers, which were not expecting such a rapid recovery in leisure flying following more than a year of the coronavirus pandemic, the fall was usually carried by business travelers.

But that’s not happening this year as many businesses are keeping their employees home and working off Zoom calls. Thus, airfares from September to November are expected to be lower than normal as a result. The hope is that a potential increase in the volume of passengers between now and the lucrative six-week holiday travel period from mid-November to after New Year’s – where fares are expected to be priced similar to last year – will lead to increased revenue.

September may be the cheapest season of the fall, according to the travel data company Hopper. Airfares are estimated to drop 10 percent into September with the average round-trip flight costing $260 for domestic travel.

Hopper expects airfares to rise 11 percent from September levels into December for holiday travel. Average round-trip airfares are expected to be $289 as a result.

“This would make domestic airfare over the holiday season equivalent to summer airfare, similar to what we saw in 2019 and 2020,” Hopper told Insider. Holiday travel spiked in 2020 despite pleas from public health officials about a second wave, with airlines likely estimating similar demand this year.