Measuring prices and spending: Airline fares : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Bureau of Labor Statistics > Consumer Price Index > Publications > Factsheets

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Measuring prices and spending: Airline fares

This page provides a basic understanding of the differences between the various BLS price indexes and expenditure measures for airline fares, to help determine the economic measure that best fits your analytical purposes. To keep the public informed of price trends, the BLS price index and expenditure measures cover business and consumer aspects of airline fares for the transportation industry. Please individual program pages for additional details on the data available from the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Producer Price Index (PPI), Import and Export Price Indexes (MXPI), and Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE).

A list of the prices indexes and expenditure measures for airline fares and their series ID codes is available here: Prices and spending airline fares series ID codes (XLSX)

To protect the privacy and assure the confidentiality of businesses and households that provide data for BLS surveys, actual prices and expenditures cannot be shared with the public. Prices are grouped, averaged, and weighted to calculate indexes that track the monthly rise or fall of the average prices of different demographic, geographic, industry, and product categories. Individual household expenditures are grouped, averaged, and weighted to calculate average expenditures of different demographic and income categories.

Table 1: Characteristics of BLS price and spending measures for airline fares
	Consumer Price Index (CPI)	Producer Price Index (PPI)	Import and Export Price Indexes (MXPI)	Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE)
	What is being measured?	Change in the price that consumers paid in the reference month for future travel.	Change in the prices that U.S. based airlines receive for tickets with scheduled departure dates in the reference month.	Change in average price that airlines receive for air passenger travel to and from the United States for tickets with scheduled departure dates during the reference month.	Household expenditures for airfare, as measured through consumer units. A consumer unit (CU) is a measurement unit collected for the eligible individuals represented in the expenditure reports.
Measure - general information	The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for airline fares tracks the change in the typical ticket purchase price consumers pay in the month they buy their ticket for non-business travel from cities across the United States. The CPI is published monthly at the U.S. level and is also seasonally adjusted. The airline fares CPI has been a component of the public transportation price index since 1963. Not Seasonally Adjusted data for airline fares CPI has been published on a monthly basis since December 1968 and Seasonally Adjusted data for airline fares CPI has been published on a monthly basis since January 1989.	The Producer Price Index (PPI) for the scheduled passenger air transportation industry tracks average change in prices offered by U.S. establishments providing air transportation of passengers over regular routes and on regular schedules for air passenger carriers, commuter flights, and helicopter carriers (except scenic and sightseeing). These are detailed further in component indexes by domestic and international flights and by class of service. The PPI is published monthly at the U.S. level. The scheduled air passenger transportation industry PPI has been published on a monthly basis since December 1989.	The Import and Export Price Indexes (MXPI) for air passenger fares track the change in transaction prices paid by consumers to U.S. and foreign airlines on international passenger routes for travel during the month. The air passenger fares MXPIs are published monthly at the U.S. level and are not seasonally adjusted. The air passenger fares MXPIs are available on a quarterly basis from September 1986 and on a monthly basis from January 2001.	The Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE) publishes airline fare expenditures in the public and other transportation category. Consumer expenditures on airline fares are collected from individuals living in the United States via the Interview and Diary surveys. 12-month estimates for these expenditures are published once a year. These estimates are summarized for income levels and demographic characteristics. CE public use microdata (PUMD) are published semiannually for analyzing public transportation expenditure data in more detail. The airfare expenditure estimates have been published on an annual basis since 1984.
Price / expenditure definition	Reported price of the flight inclusive of taxes, government fees, and up to one checked bag.	Average revenue per passenger including traveler fees (baggage, etc.) and excluding taxes and government fees.	Average airline fare per passenger including taxes and excluding airline fees and government fees. Imports are prices paid by U.S. residents on foreign carriers between the U.S. and foreign countries. Exports are prices paid by non-U.S. residents on U.S. carriers between foreign destinations and to the U.S.	Airline fare expenditures are the dollars spent on airline tickets, taxes, and fees (baggage, etc.) by household members during the interview or recordkeeping period.
Price / expenditure periodicity and eligibility for inclusion	Airline fares paid by the consumer are eligible for pricing and collection in the month the purchase occurs. All regularly scheduled domestic and international commercial airline trips on certified carriers departing from each city in the CPI geographic sample are eligible for pricing in the airline fares index. For the selected cities that do not have a qualifying airport, the nearest city with a qualifying airport is designated as the city of departure. Excluded from pricing are trips in helicopters, trips on intra-Alaska carriers, and trips designated as business travel.	Revenues per air passenger trip are measured in the month the trip occurs. PPIs are calculated using prices for passenger flights flown in the reference month, not when passenger flights are purchased. Pricing data are collected in the month in which services are provided, although passenger fares may have been purchased by the consumer in a prior month. This prevents the inclusion of passenger cancellations in the index calculation. Each eligible trip in the scheduled passenger air transportation industry index represents a specific origin, destination, and class of service, such as coach and first class, and the price is the average revenue per passenger for the flight. The target coverage for the scheduled passenger air transportation industry are average changes in revenue received by establishments primarily engaged in providing air transportation of passengers over regular routes on regular schedules.	Airline fares paid to U.S. and foreign airlines for international travel by U.S. and foreign passengers are collected in the month the trip occurs. Eligible trips include regularly scheduled international commercial airline trips to and from the countries representative of U.S. air travel. The import air passenger fares index measures changes in air passenger fares paid by U.S. residents to foreign carriers for flights between the United States and foreign countries. The export air passenger fares index measures changes in air passenger fares paid by foreign residents to U.S. carriers for flights between foreign countries and the United States and between foreign countries.	Airline fare expenditures are a subcategory of public and other transportation expenditures and include the dollar amount spent each quarter. Airline fare expenditure means are the average dollars spent on airline fares per household. Airline fare aggregate expenditure shares are the total dollars spent on airline fares. Eligible airline fares are obtained from trips that ended during the reference period of the surveys. Expenditures are not obtained for prepaid flights not yet taken. Expenditures may be estimated using PUMD.
Price / expenditure representative-ness, sample and collection information	The target coverage for the airline fares consumer price index represents the non-business airline travel of the U.S. urban population. Price data for the airline fares index is collected from participating airlines and third-party travel websites. In each of the CPI geographic areas, a sample of trips is selected for pricing using those cities as the points of origin. The specific trips to be priced are selected with probability proportional to the number of passengers on each trip as recorded in the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) databank. The DOT databank contains sampled information on 10 percent of tickets sold by U.S. certified air carriers in scheduled passenger service. Included are such variables as points of origin and destination, airline, and fare (First Class, Coach Full Fare, and Coach Discount Fare). Reflecting the pattern of trips in the DOT data, the CPI sample of airline trips consists largely of discount fare service. Of the quotes priced for discount service, approximately half represent the lowest available discount fare. The remaining half is for specific discount fares other than the lowest available fare. Frequent Flyer discounts are not accounted for in the air fare prices collected.	Price data for the scheduled passenger air transportation industry index is collected from participating domestic airlines for flights flown in the reference month. Information such as origin and destination of the flight, class of service (first class, business, economy, coach), and whether or not the flight is domestic or international is also collected. Though international flights are included, all firms participating in the PPI survey are domestic. All forms of scheduled air travel are included - planes and helicopters - however, sightseeing and scenic touring are excluded. The companies included in the sample for the scheduled passenger air transportation industry PPIs are statistically selected on a probability proportional to size basis. The larger a company (in terms of revenue), the more likely they are to be selected in the sample. For selected companies, a second round of probability selection determines which specific products (routes) are included in the survey. In calculating PPI indexes, each company’s prices are weighted based on the total revenue of the airline, so the larger the airline, the more weight their pricing information is given the PPI.	The target coverage for air passenger fares import and export price indexes represents services provided by U.S. and foreign flagged carriers to foreign and U.S. residents, respectively. Price data for the air passenger fares MXPIs is purchased from a commercial data provider. The price data provides representative coverage of U.S. and foreign carriers and country market fares, as well as foreign‐to‐foreign fares flown by foreign residents on U.S. carriers. The prices are provided monthly and account for tickets sold by travel agencies, travel websites, and the airlines for scheduled departure dates during the reference month. The commercial data provider transmits prices by country groupings. These prices are weighted by revenue shares to calculate MXPIs.	Airline fare expenditures collected as part of the Interview Survey are obtained by asking the following questions: How much did (you/your household) pay for the package deal (and is the airfare is included in the package deal)? How much did (you/you or any members of your household) spend for airfare (other than what the package deal covered)? Since the first of (reference month), have (you/you or any members of your household) paid for part or all of such a trip for any non-household members (And does that cost include airfare)? Airline fare expenditures collected as part of the Diary Survey are recorded on a diary form by the respondent.
Data availability	Access time series of Consumer Price Indexes for Airline Fares in the BLS online database: CPI-U, NSA CPI-U, SA CPI-W, NSA CPI-W, SA	Access time series of Producer Price Indexes by industry for Scheduled Passenger Air Transportation and by commodity for Airline Passenger Services in the BLS online database.	Access time series of Import and Export Price Indexes for Air Passenger Fares in the BLS online database. For more information, search for the following index type categories in the Import/Export Price Indexes online database: Services Import Price Indexes and Services Export Price Indexes.	Access cross-sectional data for the Airline Fare Expenditures in the CE detailed means, variances, and percent reporting tables and PUMD. Detailed tables include the most granular level of expenditure data available for all CUs, along with variances and percent reporting for each expenditure item. Users can estimate airline fare expenditures on their own with PUMD which requires experience with statistical software, such as SAS, R, and STATA.

Last Modified Date: July 22, 2025