KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Nationwide, average airfares for domestic flights hit a record low during the first quarter of 2020, according to a report from the Kansas City Business Journal.
Kansas City International Airport saw one of its lowest first-quarter inflation-adjusted average fares during the last 20 years. However, it’s barely a drop from the same time last year, the change barely noticeable compared to the national average.
That’s according to new quarterly data from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, which shows that KCI had average domestic fares of $366.88 for the first quarter — down just 0.56% from an inflation-adjusted $368.93 in the first quarter of 2019.
The national average fare was $336.13 in the first quarter of 2020 — a 6% drop from the same period in 2019, and the lowest since the federal government began tracking fares in 1993.
Kansas City International Airport’s total passenger traffic has dropped by more than half from this time last year, the airport announced near the height of the pandemic in April.
So far this year, a little more than 2 million passengers have gone in and out of the airport, a 20.8% decrease. Year-to-date passenger boardings were down 21.4%.
