How the price of long distance flights have come down

[Borghetto]

I was going through some old papers today and came across a British Caledonian ticket from London to Houston dated 30th November 1983. The price was £556.00. I just checked with United for the same flight in 2015 it's £512.00. So in 32 years its gone down £44.00. Given the taxes that are now applied, that's a really massive reduction.

Edited by Borghetto on Thursday 2nd July 20:12

[Puggit]

Borghetto said:

I was going through some old papers today and came across a British Caledonian ticket from London to Houston dated 30th November 1983. The price was £556.00. I just checked with United for the same flight in 2015 it's £512.00 with United. So in 32 years its gone down £44.00. Given the taxes that are now applied, that's a really massive reduction.

And not forgetting inflation!

[Thankyou4calling]

I'm not so sure they have.

I was flying to the States either Orlando or New York 1991 through to about 2006 and often got return flights for between £99 and £149.

Way more than that now.

[Amateurish]

I'm pretty sure prices bottomed out around 2000 with the low cost airline boom, but that they have been rising ever since.

[s70rmp]

Thankyou4calling said:

I'm not so sure they have.

I was flying to the States either Orlando or New York 1991 through to about 2006 and often got return flights for between £99 and £149.

Way more than that now.

I remember getting a flight in 1996 Manchester to Newark and trying to swap names on a ticket that a mate had but couldn't use due to illness but BA wouldn't do it, ticket had to be released and came back on sale for £800 return
I went with another carrier on same day for £230 return

Flying Manchester to Boston this September for four of us £6115 return
But that is business class

[audidoody]

Return LHR to Auckland in 1974 - £650 (Economy) Average annual salary £2,000

Return LHR to Auckland ini 2015 - £950 (Economy) Average annual salary £25,000

[Thankyou4calling]

audidoody said:

Return LHR to Auckland in 1974 - £650 (Economy) Average annual salary £2,000

Return LHR to Auckland ini 2015 - £950 (Economy) Average annual salary £25,000

Accepted but that was 40 years ago.

20 years later, mid 90's prices had dropped MASSIVELY.

It was very easy to fly to the states for under £200 return.

[GT03ROB]

Thankyou4calling said:

It was very easy to fly to the states for under £200 return.

Without government interference & the taxes you probably could now!

[northwest monkey]

What the hell is a "September 11th Security Fee" ?