‘You can expect prices to be high and stay high’: Domestic airfare is skyrocketing faster than international flight costs, despite using less jet fuel

A summer travel paradox has emerged: Even though international flights use considerably more jet fuel than domestic travel, the cost to fly within the U.S. has skyrocketed at rates far beyond that of flying abroad. According to data from airfare search engine Skiplagged, domestic flight price growth has increased 23.2% from March 2025 to this month, while international flight costs have increased 11.5% in the same time period. This summer marks the highest domestic passenger prices for the season since 2022. Compared to international flights, which consume 15,000 to 30,000 gallons of fuel—about 1,500 to 3,000 per hour as a result of larger aircraft and long-haul routes—domestic flights use about 1,800 to 2,7000 gallons per trip, or about 750 to 900 gallons per hour. Jet fuel costs nearly doubled during the Iran war, with supplies dwindling in some parts of the world as a result of halted traffic at the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which 20% of global oil usually flows. Rising fuel costs caused panic in the airline industry: Willie Walsh, the outgoing director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), warned this month the global airline industry’s profits would be cut in half as a result of tepid demand, culminating in the worst financial year for aviation since the pandemic. The anxieties, however, did not meaningfully materialize. Instead, the rising airfare costs indicate high demand for summer travel, combined with airlines successfully making a series of moves that effectively protected them from supply chain uncertainty from the war, such as leaning into premiumization and slashing certain routes. “It’s kind of a glass half full kind of scenario, where I think the outcome was not as bad as many predicted,” Christopher Anderson, a Cornell University professor of services management who studies the airline industry, told Fortune. “Because it wasn’t as bad, and the capacity is not there…we’re seeing elevated pric