The short-lived era of extremely cheap travel is coming to an end

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The short-lived era of extremely cheap travel is coming to an end

Last summer, transport-related expenses saw historic dips:

  • The average domestic airline ticket plummeted to $135 — a 32% decline from 2019 and the lowest price in 2 decades.
  • Average daily hotel rates fell ~40%, to $80.
  • Oil prices dropped to below $0 per barrel — yes, $0 — for the first time in history, and gas hovered around $2/gallon.

But per CNBC, we may soon see these rock-bottom prices return to normal as Americans start to dip their feet back into domestic travel.

Travelers are on the move

The CDC is still advising against travel, as ~54k new cases of COVID-19 are being reported in the US every day.

But travelers aren’t shying away from airports.

According to a report, the TSA recently screened 1m+ airline passengers for 11 consecutive days — almost 2x the volume of travelers reported at the same time a year ago.

The travel site Kayak told CNBC that travel searches on its platform are up 27% week-over-week and airline queries are up 7% month-over-month.

And more travelers means a return to ‘normal’ prices

Here’s what those figures above look like now:

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