The average U.S. domestic airfare in the first quarter of 2020 fell to $336, the lowest on record, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
The quarter's average fare, which accounts only for the first few weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic in the U.S. at the end of the quarter, was down 6 percent compared with the average fare of $358 in the first quarter of 2019. Adjusted for inflation, the previous all-time low in BTS records, which date back to the beginning of 1995, was $347, set in the third quarter of 2019.
BTS average fares are based on a random sample of both one-way and round-trip tickets and include taxes and fees, but they do not include ancillary fees, such as baggage fees.