Flights may cost less in 2025

New routes, falling fuel prices are some of the developments on the horizon for passengers

- Sarah Stanley

Against the backdrop of rising costs, there is a glimmer of hope that airfare is getting cheaper in 2025.

To predict trends for the year ahead, travel companies often utilise vast amounts of data to identify pricing patterns and analyse traveller behaviour. Reports of late have listed more affordable airfare among their findings.

In December 2024, the International Air Transport Association (lata) forecasted that the average return airfare in 2025 would drop by 1.8 per cent compared with 2024.

In another report by flighttracking company Hopper, it found that long-haul flights have become more affordable. Its data indicated that flights between the United States and Asia, for instance, cost 11 per cent less in the first half of 2025 than in the same period in 2024.

In February, travel booking platform Expedia released its 2025 Air Hacks Report for Singapore, stating that average economy class ticket prices dropped by 12 per cent, while premium travel was 8 per cent cheaper in 2024 than in 2023.

Its findings were based on a comparison of average round-trip ticket prices for January to October in 2024 and the same period in 2023, sourced from Airlines Reporting Corporation's (ARC) global airline sales database.

American company ARC manages the world's most comprehensive airline ticketing dataset, with information from over 12 billion annual passenger flights operated by more than 480 airlines worldwide, according to lata.

Referencing the Expedia report, Mr James Marshall, vice-president of global air partnerships at Expedia, says: "The data we have gives us a good indication of how trends are going, and usually, we can expect such trends to continue."

FUEL PRICES DROP, FLIGHT OPTIONS RISE