At FareCompare we have put together an extensive database of historical fares. By mining this information we have developed a real-time airfare index for fares in North America.
With the FareFactor™ index, it is easy to see the impact of a system-wide fare increase or decrease. For instance in this chart you can see that Delta’s fare sale announced on December 12th of last year significantly dropped the index.
What is also interesting to note is that current fare levels are below where they were last year and are about equal to fares in 2005. Based on this it is fair to assume we will see more fare increases this quarter as carriers seek to get fares back up to the levels of fall 2006.
We also provide a monthly summary chart to see the short-term index fluctuations.
The index value is derived from actual fare prices. There is great variance in fare pricing depending upon the market and when a ticket is purchased. While derived from actual fares, the index value is not directly correlated to the dollar value of tickets and should be used as a representative value for tracking trends. We have strived to develop an algorithm that accurately reflects the trends consumers will find in the market when searching for airfare.
Note: Domestic fares are updated three times a day on weekdays and once a day on weekends. Currently the index will be updated at least once a day. When we move it to full production, it will update shortly after each new update.
Today’s Index
- 426 (10:00 am 1/29/07) the index is down 1 pt or 0.2% from the day before
One Week Ago (1/22/07)
- 440
One Month Ago (12/29/07)
- 409
One Year Ago (1/29/06)
- 455
Two Years Ago (1/29/05)
- 430
Source: Farecompare.com
