by Donald Wood
Last updated: 11:00 AM ET, Fri December 16, 2016
On Thursday, the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) and Expedia, Inc. released the results of a study looking at worldwide air travel trends, dubbed "New Heights for Air Travel: Understanding the Realities of Dropping Ticket Prices and Surging Capacity."
ARC and Expedia analyzed hundreds of millions of airline tickets to spot trends heading into 2017 by using the ARC data repository, which houses detailed insight and ticket information for almost 12.5 billion passenger flights.
According to the complete ARC-Expedia study, the results revealed that economy class average ticket prices are dropping across the world and have reached their lowest cost since 2013. In addition, travel between South America to Southeast Asia, South America to Southern Europe and China to Southern Europe saw the biggest price drop.
"Overall ticket prices continue their multi-year decline and we see nothing in the near-term data to suggest a change in this trend, especially with the increase in airline seat capacity," ARC Managing Director Chuck Thackston said in a statement. "As a company that has visibility into what travelers are actually buying, and the ability to apply sophisticated algorithms to make that information valuable and useful, ARC is delighted once again to partner with Expedia for this study. And what all the data show is no matter how you look at it, it's a great time to fly."
Another revelation from the study is that Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba, had the greatest chance in arriving travelers on commercial flights this year, jumping an astounding 53 percent from 2015 to 2016.
As for when ticket prices are at their cheapest, the report reveals weekends provide the least expensive tickets-especially Sundays-and the most expensive day to fly are Fridays. Overall, purchasing tickets at least 21 days in advance could save travelers as much as 34 percent for flights to Europe and 17 percent on domestic flights.
"For today's traveler, this confluence of circumstances - more planes, lower prices, more destinations - is exceptional," Expedia Senior Vice President Greg Schulze said in a statement. "It means that the barriers to booking a dream trip are lowered. It also means that everyday travel - flights to see the family, work trips - are likely to be easier to book at a lower price. Expedia and ARC enjoy access to a wealth of data. Together, we are showing travelers that the travel possibilities for 2017 are almost limitless."
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