Colorado Has Least Expensive Airfares in Past 12 Months

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May 23, 2012, 10:20 ET

ARLINGTON, Va., May 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ARC announced today that, based on an examination of average airline ticket fares for 12 months ending April 30, 2012, it was the least expensive to depart for a round-trip domestic flight from Colorado.^* ARC data analysts reviewed 119 million tickets that originated at the top 150 airports in the continental United States, based on the ticket volume issued through ARC-accredited agencies from May 1, 2011 through April 30, 2012. Excluding Delaware, every state was represented in the sampling.

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To track long-term trends, ARC used the same parameters to study more than 770 million tickets from Jan. 1, 2006 through Dec. 31, 2011 and found that the least expensive airfares overall occurred in Florida during this period.

In the study, ARC learned that the average domestic round-trip airfare for the 12 months ending April 30, 2012 was $207. When looking at each state within the study's parameters, it showed that during this same period, Colorado's average airfare was $171, or 18 percent below the national average, while airfares in North Dakota averaged $270, or 30 percent above the national average. Between 2006 and 2011, the average domestic round trip airfare was $178. The five states with the lowest and highest average round-trip airfares during the study periods were:

Lowest Average Round-Trip Domestic Airfare

5/1/11 – 4/30/12

1.	Colorado	$171
2.	Florida	$175
3.	Missouri	$177
4.	Maryland	$178
5.	Nevada	$179

Highest Average Round-Trip Domestic Airfare

5/1/11 – 4/30/12

1.	N. Dakota	$270
2.	Wyoming	$264
3.	New Jersey	$263
4.	Kentucky	$243
5.	Arkansas	$240

Lowest Average Round-Trip Domestic Airfare

1/1/06 – 12/31/11

1.	Florida	$152
2.	Nevada	$155
3.	Colorado	$157
4.	Maryland	$157
5.	Idaho	$160

Highest Average Round-Trip Domestic Airfare

1/1/06 – 12/31/11

1.	Wyoming	$227
2.	N. Dakota	$226
3.	S. Dakota	$220
4.	Kentucky	$218
5.	Montana	$218

Besides the $99 spread between the state with the lowest and highest average airfare for the 12 months ending April 30, 2012, ARC also noticed that from Jan. 1, 2006 through Dec. 31, 2011, states with fares higher than the national average tended to be clustered together in three geographical areas, while those with fares lower than the national average connected the East and West Coasts. States with higher-than-average fares were concentrated in the Upper Midwest/Plains, the South and the Northeast.

"With all the current discussion about airfares, it's interesting to take a look at how they vary across the country," said Chuck Thackston, managing director of data and analytics at ARC. "Although there is no one reason why this deviation should be true, many factors could contribute, including overall traffic volume, level of competition, presence of low-cost carriers, and demographic characteristics of the traveling population such as the composition of business vs. leisure passengers. Remember that this analysis was based on the passenger's originating state – not their destination. We'll keep on looking at these data points throughout this year and see if we notice any marked changes."

ARC's data and analytics division provides services for customers ranging from airlines and travel organizations to the financial industry. The company's wealth of information about airline ticket transactions created in the United States is a valuable resource to help organizations make strategic business judgments.

About ARC:

As the financial backbone of the U.S. travel industry, ARC enables commerce among travel agencies, airlines, and travel suppliers, and offers them secure and accurate financial settlement services. About 16,000 travel agencies and 190 airlines make up the ARC network. In 2011, ARC settled more than $82 billion worth of transactions between travel sellers and airlines. ARC also supplies transactional data to organizations, facilitating better business decisions through fact-based market analyses. Established in 1984, ARC is headquartered in Arlington, Va. For more information, visit www.arccorp.com.

*Notes for Editors:

May 1, 2011 – April 30, 2012 results were based on 119 million airline ticket transactions by U.S. retail and corporate travel agencies, and online travel agencies.
January 1, 2006 – December 31, 2011 results were based on 770 million airline ticket transactions by U.S. retail and corporate travel agencies, and online travel agencies.
Data from top 150 airports in the continental U.S. based on ARC volume. Excluding Alaska and Hawaii, all states except Delaware, which did not have an airport listed in the top 150, are represented on the list.
U.S. domestic simple round-trip itineraries only (travel departing from/returning to the same airport with a single outbound destination).
Individual state averages represent the weighted average by percentage of tickets originating from all airports within state.
Does not include sales of tickets purchased directly from airlines.
Prices reflect base-fares and do not include taxes, airport fees, surcharges, etc.
The findings in this press release are based on historical data. ARC never implies or guarantees any future airfare pricing from any U.S. airport.