Are U.S. airfares a bargain? Only with competition

TravelGumbo spends a lot of time reading travel news and industry analysis (as well as lots of time traveling, of course). From that, we often offer news items and analysis about industry trends and expectations.

This time, however, we'd like to recommend you take a look elsewhere, at an important and careful analysis of domestic airfare costs, written by Bill McGee for USA Today. McGee, an investigative travel journalist, writes for Consumer Reports as well.

In his report, he focuses on the wide belief that domestic airfares are a bargain, and shows how looking at averages masks the truths that the apparent overall decline in fares in recent years is more than made up by the increase in fees, and more importantly that airfares are only a bargain where airlines are fighting for passengers—and with airline consolidation, that's fewer routes.

Here is a link to his important analysis, worthwhile reading for all travelers.

Shocker: The key to low airfares is competition