Plane ticket prices pretty much where they were 15 years ago?

OMG. I need to start traveling!

By Chart R

Indeed, the airfare category within the CPI is now 4% lower than it was 15 years ago, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That’s a pretty stark finding considering that the wider basket of goods making up the headline Consumer Price Index figure, or CPI — pretty much what almost every commentator is referencing when they talk about US inflation — has risen 47.6% since 2010.

Though it’s worth noting that the Bureau’s inflation figures don’t always mean prices are falling in real terms — TVs, for example, get all sorts of quality adjustments (screen size being one) that affect the CPI figures — the BLS doesn’t make any quality adjustments to airline fares. So, the cost of your economy seat really is cheaper than it was 15 years ago.

The tight competition between major competitors in the air space, which recently saw American Airlines buckle to meet demands for free Wi-Fi (long the norm at other carriers), has helped to keep prices from soaring in the modern era of aviation.