Americans restricted from a lot of travel during the pandemic and now eager to get somewhere are benefitting from a fall in travel prices.
Bloomberg reported that figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a 13-percent drop in airfares in May compared to prices from a year earlier. It’s the largest decline in more than two years.
Prices for rental cars and trucks dropped 12%, the biggest fall in those prices since May 2020, when the pandemic severely reduced travel.
The easing of Covid restrictions last year led to a rebound in travel – and prices – but flight costs are now comparable to what travelers paid 10 years ago, United Airlines Chief Executive Officer Scott Kirby, told Bloomberg. “We’re just coming back to normalcy in pricing. The pandemic years were the aberration,” Kirby told Bloomberg. “I think this is the new normal for travel.”
It may have cost less to get to their destination, but that didn’t help things once they got there. The price of hotels in May rose 3.7% year-over-year, according to BLS data.
