The increase in airfares in Europe may be “beginning to plateau” after strong rises over the summer, according to the latest data from benchmarking specialist Skytra.
Flight prices for European departures have been increasing throughout most of 2022, as business and leisure travel has rebounded strongly following the dropping of most Covid-19 travel restrictions around the continent.
Elise Weber, co-founder and CEO of Skytra, said:“Following the increases in air travel ticket prices we have seen over the past couple of months, our latest data suggests that airfare ticket prices could be beginning to plateau.
“After rising steadily all year, European airfare prices appear to have finally levelled off in July. Our data indicates that for Europe-to-Europe flights, the average weekly price of economy class tickets gradually plateaued over the course of the month and even began to decrease slightly towards the end of July.”
Skytra, which is own by aircraft manufacturer Airbus, added that flight prices in North America remain high for domestic air travel, although they have “fallen back slightly” from 2022’s peak in June.
Earlier this month, travel management company CWT predicted that airfares would continue rising into 2023, alongside other travel costs. CWT is forecasting an 8.5 per cent rise in average flight prices next year, on top of a 48.5 per cent increase in 2022.