After two “sticky” airfare increases in January 2008 (on four attempts since the first week of 2008), the current domestic fuel surcharge sits at $40 roundtrip for most flights. One way to correlate the effect of these 2008 airline ticket price increases and surcharges — along with the 17 other system wide domestic airfare hikes in 2007 — is to check inside the numbers … Yesterday, the Air Transport Association released January U.S. airline revenue numbers showing that airline ticket “yield” (average airline ticket price passengers payed to fly one mile) was up over January of 2007 reflecting the continued trend in solid demand, higher airline ticket prices and seat supply restraint…

Airlines (as well as consumers at pump) are being whacked over the head with record fuel prices, which is one of the major catalysts for these airline ticket increases (as well as merger mania).

The following chart from the ATA (Air Transport Association) historical data shows the domestic U.S. per seat mile flown revenue trend for the past 10 “Januar-ies”. Notice the 9/11 effect and the following attempt to climb out of the the hole into profitability (this data is a sample of 7 of the top airlines provided by ATA).

This information is really only useful for trends because it doesn’t show the total number seats flown (the mix of which as moved from legacy airlines to lower cost airlines in past few years).

The reason for comparing the same month each year is to remove any possible seasonal flight demand issues which provides a better “apples to apples” comparison.

Bottom line, with oil back over $100, look for more airfare increases soon and these numbers to continue a strong upward trend in the first half of 2008.