CLT ranks second among busiest US airports with highest airfare increase
Passengers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport — no stranger to high airfare when compared to its U.S. counterparts — are feeling the pinch from rising fuel prices and travel demand. CLT ranks at No. 2 in a new analysis by SmartAsset that seeks to determine which airports have been hit with the biggest year-over-year fare increases.
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To compile the list, SmartAsset analyzed the nation’s 100 busiest airports across three metrics using data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics — part of the Department of Transportation. It looked at average airfare cost for domestic flights, including one-way and round trips, in this year’s first quarter, as well as one-year percentage change and one-year dollar change in airfare cost. Then, it ranked airports in each metric, with a half-weight given to average fare and full weight to fare changes.
At Charlotte Douglas, average airfare in the first quarter of 2022 came in at $382, which is 36.5% higher — and $102 more — than in Q1 2021. CLT’s fare increase in dollar amount tied as second highest with Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport and McGhee Tyson Airport in the Knoxville, Tennessee, area. Its uptick as a percentage ranked as eighth highest. Its overall Q1 fare this year ranked ninth.
The only airport to land higher in SmartAsset’s ranking was Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York, which is on the border of Connecticut and about 37 miles north of New York City. That airport had an average first-quarter fare of $380, with one-year growth of 45.6% or $119.
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