CLEVELAND — Planning on taking a vacation? Local travel agents tell News 5 plane tickets out of Northeast Ohio are expected to rise along with climbing gas prices.
In 2020, lots of flights never left the ground. Now in 2022, the number of planes taking off daily is beginning to resemble the pre-pandemic days.
“The number of people that have visited Hopkins over the last few weeks have basically been about 90 to 93% of where we were in 2019,” said John Hogan with the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
Hogan said the airport is seeing hundreds of travelers packed and ready to leave the state, and they don’t expect it to stop any time soon, even with the rise in gas.
“Here at the airport, we have not seen any changes since the gas price has increased. The volume is up there and for the foreseeable future. We do see volumes almost exceeding 2019. The effects won't be seen in the airports,” said Hogan.
Consumers will see the prices rise online when buying their tickets.
Dr. Jasmien Lewis is the owner of Travel Life Services, which is a travel agency that helps people book their trips.
“We've gotten a lot of calls for travel in the fall and the summer for this year,” said Lewis.
Lewis works with about four different airlines to book vacations. She says the price increase consumers are seeing now is not surprising given the time of year and influx in travelers.
“Every year prices go up for travel. So, this is more than expected,” said Lewis.
Adding the rising cost of fuel for the planes is the next factor; that will spike ticket prices further, but the effects won't be seen for another few months.
“We have a delay a little bit there. When it comes to the airlines, they buy fuel in advance, so they have some reserves,” said Lewis.
The good thing is, airlines do have a cap on flight ticket prices.
“A normal flight that would normally be $500 is not going to be a million dollars; they do have a cap that they have to go by,” said Lewis.
Even with the expected rise in ticket prices, Hogan says trends show travelers are still flying out of Cleveland Hopkins, for now.
“They want to get out, they want to see the world. At this point, gas prices are not holding them back and it may even push people to travel by air rather than car,” said Hogan.
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