According to Labor Department data issued on Thursday, airfares increased by about 43% compared to the same time last year, a record-breaking increase that surpassed the department's monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) report.
According to the CPI, which monitors inflation, prices have increased 8.2% overall over the past year and 0.4% over the past month.
In the data from last month, airfare was up 33%.
The fastest-growing category was airfare, which was followed by utility bills for gas (33.1%) and eggs (30.5%).
Fuel climbed 18.2% to place fourth.
The increase in airfare is the result of an unusual trend where demand has stayed high into the "shoulder season" of the fall between the busy summer and holiday travel seasons.
While corporate travel is slowly starting to resume as more people return to their offices, pent-up demand for pleasure travel following nearly two years of closed borders has remained strong.
Glenn Hauenstein, president of Delta Air Lines, mentioned the abnormally high travel demand, particularly to Europe, during a teleconference with investors on Thursday.
Transatlantic travel remains in high demand far into the fall, according to Hauenstein.
"We anticipate operating more transatlantic flights starting in October than in 2019."
According to Hauenstein, this robust demand is anticipated to last through the holidays.
The airlines' responses to numerous operational setbacks during spring and summer, when carriers lowered capacity to build more slack into their networks, have complicated the increase in travel prices.
While this had the advantage of providing airlines more latitude in how they handled delays and cancellations brought on by events like thunderstorms, it also meant that the airlines were inadvertently draining the system's supply.
Prices naturally rise as long as supply is constrained and demand is high.
Through at least the holiday season, air rates are anticipated to stay high.
According to data gathered by travel booking firm Hopper, Christmas flight prices are up 55% from last year and up 19% from this year, while Thanksgiving flight prices are up 25% from the previous year.
However, there are indications that Americans' holiday plans are starting to be impacted by inflation.
According to a recent Bankrate study, 79% of the 43% of American adults who want to travel over the holidays are altering some aspects of their travel arrangements as a result of inflation.
Make your trip arrangements as soon as possible if you haven't already:
Holiday flight costs usually rise as October transitions into November, so ticket increases are inevitable.
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