Why Southwest Flights Are Getting MORE Expensive

Southwest has been America’s go-to budget airline since its first flight in 1971. Southwest is known for its low-cost airfare and massive sales, but the CEO just revealed that could change soon.

Southwest CEO Bob Jordan stated that price hikes are on the way – and they’re likely here to stay.

Speaking at Bernstein’s 42nd Annual Strategic Decisions Conference on Thursday, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan told the Dallas Morning News that the aviation industry has had seven consecutive fare increases since February 1st, acknowledging that Southwest had participated in all of those. “That’s the most that I could remember in my 38 years in the industry, but with fares up that much, there’s been no drop off at all,” he said.

Airline fares rose nearly 21% in the past year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index. The reason for the increase? Fuel costs. Aircraft fuel and oil are the largest expenses for airlines at nearly 29% of costs, highlighting the significant impact of fuel prices on operational expenses, according to World Air Transport statistics.

“If you just took today’s revenue environment or yield environment and you — and you took fuel prices as they are today. No, no, it’s not close,” Jordan said in response to a question about whether Southwest can cover the jet fuel price hike at the latest round of fare increases. “So you still — you need further increases to fully cover the rise in fuel this far.”

We’ll be sure to keep you updated on rising airfare costs. Stay tuned to AllEars for more travel news!

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