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10 Most Expensive Airports in the U.S.
During the holiday season air travel normally gets more expensive and this year prices are even higher than usual. But besides the time of the yearn, the price of your flight also varies based on the airport you fly from.
Some U.S. cities have seen flight costs jump at even higher rates than the national average, with increases of more than 50% year over year for the second quarter in some cases. SmartAsset recently conducted a study analyzing airfare prices at the 100 busiest airports is the US, based on 2021 domestic passenger numbers.
10 Most Expensive U.S. Airports
These are the top 10 most expensive airport in the country to fly from:
Madison, Wisconsin — Dane County Regional-Truax Field
Average fare: $526
Percent increase: 34.54 percent
Dollar amount increase: $135
Washington, D.C. — Washington Dulles International Airport
Average fare: $526
Percent increase: 33.06 percent
Dollar amount increase: $131
Birmingham, Alabama — Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International
Average fare: $503
Percent increase: 37.52 percent
Dollar amount increase: $137
San Francisco — San Francisco International
Average fare: $499
Percent increase: 28 percent
Dollar amount increase: $109
Greer, South Carolina — Greenville-Spartanburg International
Average fare: $490
Percent increase: 35.62 percent
Dollar amount increase: $129
Greensboro, North Carolina — Piedmont Triad International
Average fare: $486
Percent increase: 35.41 percent
Dollar amount increase: $127
Fresno, California — Fresno Yosemite International
Average fare: $474
Percent increase: 42.15 percent
Dollar amount increase: $140
Tucson, Arizona — Tucson International
Average fare: $470
Percent increase: 37.6 percent
Dollar amount increase: $128
Little Rock, Arkansas — Bill and Hillary Clinton Nat Adams Field
Average fare: $466
Percent increase: 36.22 percent
Dollar amount increase: $124
Pensacola, Florida — Pensacola International
Average fare: $462
Percent increase: 51.28 percent
Dollar amount increase: $157
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4 COMMENTS
SFO has a lot of expensive routes and a high income clientele. Makes sense.
I am based in HSV (which was formerly crowned as the US’s most expensive airport), and have always weighed the convenience of flying out of our local airport vs. driving 1.5-2 hrs to BHM or BNA or even 3 1/4 hrs to ATL. I’ve found good value for miles, especially for airlines like AA where I’ve noticed award prices can sometimes be correlated to passenger load rather than cash price, so if you can find an off-peak time when no one is flying, you’re more likely to get a 6-8K one way redemption because AA just wants to fill the plane.
IAD and SFO are odd to see on here so I would question their methodology overall. United almost always matches fares from DCA and BWI and fares to/from DC area I always find reasonable.
SFO has tons of competition. With both maybe they see high fares to smaller cities? but that is expected when you are getting a non stop flight.
I agree, particularly with SFO. The 28% increase is well below the others on the list. I would suspect SFO is expensive due to the high number of Trans-pacific flights followed by trans-continental. I bet if this list sorted only domestic fares, SFO would be in the middle of the pack (not defending SFO, but the methodology is ignorant).
SFO has a lot of expensive routes and a high income clientele. Makes sense.
I am based in HSV (which was formerly crowned as the US’s most expensive airport), and have always weighed the convenience of flying out of our local airport vs. driving 1.5-2 hrs to BHM or BNA or even 3 1/4 hrs to ATL. I’ve found good value for miles, especially for airlines like AA where I’ve noticed award prices can sometimes be correlated to passenger load rather than cash price, so if you can find an off-peak time when no one is flying, you’re more likely to get a 6-8K one way redemption because AA just wants to fill the plane.
IAD and SFO are odd to see on here so I would question their methodology overall. United almost always matches fares from DCA and BWI and fares to/from DC area I always find reasonable.
SFO has tons of competition. With both maybe they see high fares to smaller cities? but that is expected when you are getting a non stop flight.
I agree, particularly with SFO. The 28% increase is well below the others on the list. I would suspect SFO is expensive due to the high number of Trans-pacific flights followed by trans-continental. I bet if this list sorted only domestic fares, SFO would be in the middle of the pack (not defending SFO, but the methodology is ignorant).