Airfares Have Spiked. Is the Death of Spirit Airlines to Blame?

If you’ve shopped for airline tickets recently, you’ve likely experienced sticker shock.Airfares have been rising consistently over the past year, averaging 24 percent more in August than a year earlier, according to the Consumer Price Index.Holiday fares are reaching new highs.

The booking app Hopper said domestic fares were up 31 percent for Thanksgiving compared with last year’s.“It’s the most expensive holiday travel season in a decade, and I can only say a decade because my data goes back a decade,” said Hayley Berg, an economist with Hopper, citing the high cost of jet fuel, which has spiked since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran in February.Before May, budget seekers could resort to a consistent source of low-cost fares: Spirit Airlines.But since the ultra-low-cost carrier shut down this spring, after declaring bankruptcy, airlines that once competed with Spirit have been released from the carrier’s downward pressure on prices.Cirium, an aviation analytics company, found that fares on former Spirit routes had increased roughly 5 to 6 percent in June since the year before.

Though the company cautioned that Spirit’s exit alone couldn’t be credited for the rise, it noted that on one route between Cleveland and Las Vegas, the average fare among eight competing carriers in that period rose to $272 from about $192, or more than 40 percent.Here’s what to know about the impact of Spirit’s closure on fares and where to look for airline bargains.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....