Why are air fares not coming down?

You’re right, it’ll never happen…

Consolidation in the airline industry has greatly reduced competitive pressure to lower prices. Where Continental and North West Air and TWA and US Air used to compete for routes, now they don’t.

And they’re trying to make even more money by squeezing more seats in economy. Air travel ahs certainly gone downhill in recent years.

Bring back the trains!

The airline industry does a lot of fuel hedging so it takes some time for their costs to fluctuate in either direction.

It’s also the holidays, their busiest time with the greatest demand for flights.

Prices should drop after the first of the year relative to now, and if oil prices stay low, I would imagine they’ll drop further for next spring/summer travel season.

Because when gas was over $4 at the pump under Pres. Bush and then came back down the prices for air travel and groceries took about 2 years to come back down. That’s what happens. We are a free market system that unfortunately lacks some integrity. If the market has been paying higher prices then the business will continue to ask for the higher price if it can get it and make more profit.

If you live in a Delta hub it’s really bad. They gouge like crazy.

@JLeslie gas where I live just recently came down to under $4 a gallon. For many years into the obama administration gas was through the roof as well. with him the media didn’t complain about it. when Bush was President the media harped on the high price of gasoline endlessly. I hate when people try to revise history.

^^ I think people just got used to the high prices eventually; I don’t think that was a media conspiracy.

^^ Don’t agree. people get hostile over what they are spoon fed on a daily basis.

@BeenThereSaidThat What rewriting? Under Bush gas prices went up to around $4 for a while and air travel, food, and other items went up and business blamed it on gas prices. When the gas prices came down (which also was when the elections were getting closer, I don’t know if that is a coincidence or not) the food prices stayed high, but eventually after a loooong time they came back down. Over a year. Then the gas prices went up under Obama, have been for years, and now finally they have come noticeably down (did that start during the midterm election cycle?) and prices for other goods aren’t coming down so fast.

You aren’t trying to say gas prices didn’t go up to around an average if $4 while Bush was President are you? That would be rewriting history. It has been high for more years under Obama, that’s true.

I only used the Bush example because it’s fairly recent history, so people remember it, and it was the only time while I’ve been an adult (so I remember it well) that I was aware of such high gas prices and also the price of food and other goods.

The only time in history before Obama. Now it’s happening under Obama.

Maybe they will. Check out this story from the Washington Post, which begins:

Flying could get cheaper next year as airlines say they will finally start passing on some of the savings made on plummeting oil prices.

But don’t hold your breath.