Flying Out of Minnesota Is The Cheapest It’s Been Since the 90’s

If you're looking for an excuse to fly the friendly skies, this might be it!

Because flying out of Minnesota is the cheapest it's been since 1995, at least, according to this new report from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. (Yes, there really is a government agency with that name!)

The report says that, on average, airfares here in the United States (including both Rochester Internation and the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airports) are the cheapest they've been since Friends was in its second season on NBC and Bill Clinton was only three years into his first term in the White House.

That's right, the $343 average airline ticket from the third quarter of last year is "the lowest inflation-adjusted quarterly fare since the Bureau of Transportation Statistics began collecting such records in 1995, down 0.4 percent from the previous low of $345 in the third quarter of 2017," the report says.

Of course, there IS some fine print, though. The report says airfares today are as cheap as they were in 1995... when adjusted for inflation. So, yeah, we're still shelling out more dollars today than we were then. Of course, our salaries are (hopefully) adjusted for inflation too, meaning we (hopefully) are making more than we were in 1995 as well.

Here's where they get us, though: The report only covers the cost of your actual ticket-- and not the litany of extra fees all the airlines charge these days for things like, oh, checking bags, priority boarding, getting a seat with extra legroom and pretty much everything else. All things that they pretty much didn't charge for 24 years ago.

So, overall, yeah, we ARE still paying more to fly today. But, if you're really looking to get out of Minnesota and our snowy February, telling yourself that your ticket is the same price we paid in 1995 might be the excuse you need!

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