Fair Fares
This Houston airport flies high as one of the cheapest in Texas, study says
If you're flying out of town soon and your ticket says Hobby Airport, we've got good news for you. A recent study by personal finance site FinanceBuzz compared domestic roundtrip airfare at 45 of the busiest airports in America, finding Hobby is one of the cheapest in Texas.
It ranks No. 21 overall, behind Dallas Love Field at No. 8, with an average ticket price of $338.79. When you factor in the airport's "passenger volume rank" — it gets a 45, meaning Hobby (HOU) is the least busy airport in the study (each included airport serviced at least 100,000 passengers a year).
Dallas Love Field (DAL) — the cheapest in Texas — rings up at $303.32 and a volume rank of 37, while Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) comes in at No. 23 overall, costing an average of $341.51 with a volume rank of 25.
Flying out of elsewhere in Texas? It'll cost you.
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) is all the way down at No. 40, with a volume rank of 9 and average cost of $383.43. Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) fares worst in Texas, barely missing the bottom at No. 43. Its volume rank of 22 puts it squarely in the middle for number of passengers served, yet its ticket prices are all the way up at $413.66.
The study points out that while these fares don't look too terrible — average domestic airfares in 2018 were the lowest (with inflation adjustments) since the Bureau of Transportation Statistics began collecting records in 1995 — they don't take into consideration extra fees paid at the airport or onboard the aircraft itself. All data in this study was gathered from the 2018 report released by the U.S. Department of Transportation on April 16, 2019.
The busiest airports, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), fall to the middle of the pack, cost-wise. Joining Bush as the most expensive are Charlotte/Douglas International Airport (CLT) at $425.77 and Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) at $427.37.
That's nearly $200 more than the cheapest airports in the study: McCarran International Airport (LAS) in Nevada ($240.35); Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL) in Florida ($245.35); and Orlando International Airport (MCO), also in Florida ($249.74).