--- title: Two of America's Most Expensive Airports Just Became the Cheapest description: When low-fare airlines like Spirit, Frontier, and Allegiant increase their presence at an airport, flight prices drop. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2015-07-23T20:05:58.000Z' modified: '2024-05-16T10:22:04.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - Airlines - Travel word_count: 367 canonical: https://money.com/cheap-flights-airports/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Delta Airlines passenger jet and service truck at Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, 2014.](https://img.money.com/2015/07/150723_em_cheapestairports.jpg?crop=0px%2C252px%2C2034px%2C1145px&quality=85) *Delta Airlines passenger jet and service truck at Atlanta International Airport .* [CheapFlights.com](http://www.cheapflights.com/news/2015-airport-affordability-report/) has just released the latest edition of its Airport Affordability Report, and shockingly, the two most affordable airports in 2015 were among the nation's most expensive a year ago. America's two cheapest airports based on average airfares found on CheapFlights are Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky (CVG) and Atlanta (ATL), where average domestic fares run $199 and $231, respectively. Last year, CVG and ATL ranked #77 and #74 in the country in terms of average flight prices. Several other big cities made significant leaps in terms of affordability ranking too: Chicago-O'Hare, Philadelphia, New York-LaGuardia, and Cleveland all landed in the top 10 in 2015, while none was ranked higher than #31 a year ago. What caused Cincinnati and Atlanta airports in particular to become so affordable in such a short period of time? Cincinnati has traditionally been one of the country's most expensive airports because it was long [dominated by one airline, Delta](http://www.budgettravel.com/blog/case-study-what-happens-when-one-airline-dominates-an-airport,12121/). But years of airline mergers and reductions in service meant that flights decreased at hubs like [Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Memphis](http://business.time.com/2014/02/04/airline-travelers-your-future-will-look-a-lot-like-cleveland/), which were once overwhelmingly served by a single airline. Sensing opportunity, smaller airlines more likely to offer discount flights stepped in to occupy some of the space formerly occupied by the legacy carriers. As a result, overall fares at the airports dropped. As the [*Cincinnati Business Courier*](http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/morning_call/2015/07/frontier-takes-step-to-make-flying-more.html) reported recently, "Low-cost carriers like Frontier and Allegiant Airlines increasing flights have been responsible for a significant drop in average fares at the Cincinnati airport." Atlanta is another airport that has traditionally been largely dominated by Delta. But over the years Delta was forced to compete with the discount carrier AirTran on many routes. Southwest Airlines purchased AirTran in 2010, and for a while average fares increased as Southwest consolidated flights and flight prices rose as supply decreased. In recent months, though, low-fare carriers such as [Spirit](http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/morning_call/2015/02/spirit-airlines-adds-atlanta-flights.html) and [Frontier Airlines](http://www.ajc.com/news/business/frontier-airlines-expanding-in-atlanta/nkHkd/) have significantly bolstered their presence at Atlanta with new flights at the major gateway. What's more, Atlanta is always among the [world's busiest airports](http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2015/02/05/atlanta-airport-were-still-the-worlds-busiest/22915987/), and the presence of more and more carriers battling it out for all of those travelers puts downward pressure on pricing. The bottom line is pretty simple: More competition translates to lower prices for travelers. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/cheap-flights-airports/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Travel", "item": "https://money.com/travel/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Two of America's Most Expensive Airports Just Became the Cheapest" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/cheap-flights-airports/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/cheap-flights-airports/", "name": "Two of America's Most Expensive Airports Just Became the Cheapest", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-07-23T20:05:58.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/cheap-flights-airports/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/cheap-flights-airports/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-16T10:22:04.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Two of America's Most Expensive Airports Just Became the Cheapest", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/07/150723_em_cheapestairports.jpg?crop=0px%2C252px%2C2034px%2C1145px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "150723_EM_CheapestAirports" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-07-23T20:05:58.000Z", "description": "When low-fare airlines like Spirit, Frontier, and Allegiant increase their presence at an airport, flight prices drop.", "abstract": "When low-fare airlines like Spirit, Frontier, and Allegiant increase their presence at an airport, flight prices drop.", "@id": "https://money.com/cheap-flights-airports/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-05-16T10:22:04.000Z", "wordCount": 367, "keywords": [ "Airlines", "Travel" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Travel", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel" ] } ] } ] } ```