Despite being known as the golden age of air travel, flying in the ’50s was not cheap. In fact,
a roundtrip flight from Chicago to Phoenix could cost today’s equivalent of $1,168 when adjusted for inflation
. A one-way flight to Europe could cost more than $3,000 in today’s dollars.
How much did a plane ticket cost in 1963?
The average flight in 1963 cost
about $41
, which equals $323 with inflation.
What was air travel like in the 1950s?
But people didn’t take flying for granted in the 1950s, when air travel was still
new and exciting
. In that era, flight attendants served in-flight meals on fine china plates with proper cutlery, passengers could stretch their legs in lounges on the plane, and even sleep in seats that converted into beds.
How much was the first plane ticket?
The Very First Commercial Flight Took Off 100 Years Ago — It Cost
$400
And Lasted 23 Minutes. The letter F. An envelope.
How much did a plane cost in 1920?
In the 1920s, a plane ticket cost just
$5
!
How much did it cost to fly in 1970?
In the early 1970s, many people did not see it as a safe means of transportation, although today this is considered the safest mode of transportation in the world. The average price of a ticket was
around $550
, if we take into consideration inflation, that would be $3200 today.
How much did a plane ticket cost in 1974?
— In 1974, it was illegal for an airline to charge less than $1,442 in inflation-adjusted dollars for a flight between New York City and Los Angeles. On Kayak, just now, I found one for
$278
. Why did deregulation create such dramatically falling prices?
How much did a plane ticket cost in 1973?
| Year 1963 1973 | CPI 23.700 32.208 |
|---|
How was flying in the 60s?
Flying was becoming more and more mundane in the 1960s, and was
generally a relaxed affair
. Flying became more and more common in the 1960s. Passengers didn’t dress up as much as before, though they typically dressed up more than passengers do today. Passengers flying in the 1960s could also fly without any form of ID.
How much did a plane ticket cost in 1968?
In the 1970s: you’d have to pay $550 to fly the same route. That doesn’t seem like such a big difference, but if you take inflation into account, you’d find that there had been a big discount. This fare would only cost $3,200 today.
An almost-empty plane in mid-flight (1968).
How much did a plane ticket cost in 1930?
A roundtrip ticket from coast to coast cost
about $260
in the 1930’s.
How much did Concord flight cost?
For an average round-trip, across-the-ocean ticket price of
about $12,000
, Concorde shuttled its upper-crust passengers over the Atlantic in about three hours: an airborne assemblage of wealth, power, and celebrity hurtling along at breakneck speed.
How much did Plane tickets cost in 1980?
According to the Wall Street Journal, the average round trip domestic ticket in 1980 cost
$592.55
. Even with bag fees, water fees, oxygen fees and whatever other fee Spirit charges, the average cost in 2010 was $337.97.
How much did a plane ticket cost in 2020?
The 2020 average domestic itinerary air fare of
$292
was the lowest inflation-adjusted annual fare since the Bureau of Transportation Statistics began collecting such records in 1995, down 19% from the previous low of $359 in 2019.
Is flying cheaper than it used to be?
Plane tickets usually don’t get cheaper closer to the departure date.
Flights tend to be the most inexpensive when you book between four months and three weeks before your departure date
. According to the CheapAir.com 2019 Annual Airfare Study, you can expect rates to go up after that period.
How much did a plane ticket cost in 2010?
The average domestic flight costs $359 today, while in 2010, the average price was
$336
, or $392 in today’s dollars.
How much did Plane tickets cost in 1990?
According to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the average domestic roundtrip base airfare in 1990 cost
$288
or $554 in today’s dollars. The most recent data from the department states that the base fare for the same type of ticket in 2018 is $340.
How much does a plane ticket cost in 2021?
The average cost of a domestic, round-trip flight in 2021 so far is
$260
, a decrease from the average cost in 2020 of $292. Comparatively, the average round-trip flight in 2019 cost about $355, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
How much were plane tickets in 1975?
Total cost of a 1975 unrestricted one-way fare in today’s dollars:
$628
. On Monday, the cheapest LAX-O’Hare one-way refundable fare sold by American Airlines was $508.
How much did a plane ticket cost in 2019?
First quarter 2019 average domestic itinerary air fare:
$353
. Adjusted for inflation, (constant 2019 dollars) the 1Q 2019 air fare was: Up 0.3% from 1Q 2018 ($352) Down 2.0% from 4Q 2018 ($361)
How long did it take to fly from New York to London in 1950?
An airline trip from New York to London that could take
up to 15 hours
in the early 1950s could be made in less than seven hours by the early 1960s. But airline nostalgia can be tricky, and “golden ages” are seldom as idyllic as they seem.
When did air become more affordable?
But in
1978
, everything changed. Then President Jimmy Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act, and the aviation industry was open for business. Free from government regulation, airlines now had one goal: to sell tickets.
How much did a plane ticket cost in 2003?
In September, the average price of a domestic ticket was
$119 for a 1,000-mile trip and $409 for a 4,000-mile trip
— about 18 percent cheaper than in September 2000 — according to the ATA.
How much did a plane ticket cost in 1979?
Even after deregulation, a basic domestic round-trip airfare in 1979
averaged $615.82
in today’s money. That average fare dropped to $344.22 by 2016. Fees have risen dramatically from the equivalent of $1.65 in 1979 to $22.70 by 2016, but even with those fees added back in, airfares are much cheaper.
What is the golden age of flying?
Some historians believe the “Golden Age” began in the 1930s
, Bubb said, but “others argue the ‘Golden Age’ of commercial air travel took place in the 1940s with pressurized, faster planes such as the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-6.”
