As airlines cut flights and add fuel surcharges, "this is the kind of thing we're seeing over and over again," said Frahm. "Inventory is shrinking and the prices are escalating - supply and demand."
Planning your winter vacation? Be prepared for some sticker shock. Holiday travel is never cheap, but as airlines cut capacity, the reduction of seats to winter hot spots like Florida, Hawaii, and the Caribbean is creating a flight crunch and allowing carriers to charge a premium on popular routes. Cities with significant cuts are seeing some of the biggest price increases.
Airfares are up an average of 11 percent between November and February, according to data from Travelocity, but fares to Honolulu, which lost a big chunk of seats because of the shutdown of Aloha Airlines and ATA Airlines, are up 21.7 percent.
Parts of Florida will see double-digit drops in the number of scheduled seats from domestic flights in coming months, according to OAG Back Aviation Solutions. And ticket prices are rising accordingly, with late fall and winter fares up 20.1 percent to Tampa and St. Petersburg, where seats are expected to drop 11 and 84 percent in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, fares have risen 14.9 percent to West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, where seats are expected to drop 7 and 9 percent in the fourth quarter.
Starting Sept. 3, Continental will no longer fly to the Florida cities of Sarasota or Tallahassee. In addition, Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines will eliminate service to Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers on Sept. 8, and Delta has announced route cancellations between Orlando and cities like Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, and Little Rock, Ark. JetBlue will discontinue service between Newburgh, N.Y., and West Palm Beach, Fla., after Sept. 2.
Orlando, where scheduled seats are expected to drop 15 percent in the fourth quarter, has seen a somewhat mild rise in fares - up 4.9 percent between November and February, according to Travelocity.
