This U.S. Airport Saw the Highest Spike in Flight Prices Over the Past Year

Lending Tree found that these U.S. airports have become the most — and least — expensive airports to fly out of.

As air travel millions of Americans made their way back to the skies — in what may have been a few years — a new report shares how airfare for flights out of certain airports were impacted from last year to this year,

According to a report from Lending Tree, the largest spike in airfare prices was observed in Miami where Miami International Airport saw fares rise 23.9 percent from 2022 to 2023, with the average fare being $297.36.

The financial services company analyzed passenger data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and took a close look at average fares (that were adjusted for inflation) for the top 100 largest airports in 2022, as ranked by passenger traffic.

Following Miami, Portland, Maine’s Portland International Jetport came in second with a 22.3 percent spike in prices to an average airfare of $368.31. The third place was a tie between Long Beach Airport (Long Beach, California) and Southwest Florida International (Fort Myers, Florida) where prices jumped 18.9 percent, for a total of $239.57. 

Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York saw the biggest decrease between 2022 and 2023, with an 8.3 percent drop in prices to $369.08. However, the lowest average airfares can be found at the Orlando Sanford International Airport, where the average roundtrip costs just $143.03. 

“It clearly proves how much Americans love to travel. Once people started to feel safe about traveling again after the darkest days of the pandemic, the floodgates opened and people headed to the airport in droves to make up for lost time,” says LendingTree Chief Credit Analyst Matt Schulz in the report. 

In order to help secure the cheapest price on domestic flights, travel insiders recommend booking tickets approximately 76 days in advance. Travelers can also turn to tech tools, such as Google Flights, which will alert a traveler of the best time to buy a ticket to lock in the lowest price.

For more Travel & Leisure news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Travel & Leisure.