The price to fly from Bradley International Airport has risen at almost twice the national rate, making the Hartford area the most expensive place for airline tickets in the region.
According to a recent article in the Hartford Business Journal, the average round trip Bradley airfare rose 9.1 percent to $398.03 in the first quarter from the first quarter of 2011, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics in late July. The average roundtrip U.S. airfare rose 4.8 percent to $372.75 in the first quarter.
The increase makes Bradley the most expensive among rival airports in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and eastern New York, second only in New England to flights from Burlington, Vt., according to the article.
Kevin Dillon, executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority, which operates Bradley, said that since the CAA took over control of Bradley from the state Department of Transportation last year, the authority has tried to increase airline competition to make fares more competitive.
Individual airlines control fares and the cost is based on the percentage of business travelers, the number of passengers, routes lengths, fuel prices and competition, Dillon said.
Bradley has a 50/50 split between business and leisure travelers, a higher percentage of business travelers than surrounding airports. Business passengers are more likely to pay higher airfares because they are less flexible in their flight dates.
Passenger traffic at Bradley airport hit a peak in 2005 and lost more than 25 percent of its traffic in the following four years. The airport’s passenger traffic rebounded in 2010 and 2011, although traffic appears to be declining again this year. In June, 467,278 passengers left from and arrived in Windsor Locks, down 3 percent from June 2011.
