Airlines for America CEO says plane ticket prices will stabilize

Airlines for America CEO Chris Sununu on Sunday said the price of plane tickets will stabilize amid high jet fuel prices that have spiked in the six months since the Iran war began.

“People realize that demand is high,” Sununu told “The Hill Sunday” host Chris Stirewalt on NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network. “I don’t think you’re going to see prices go up significantly. I think they’re going to be kind of stabilized for quite a while because we’re not getting out of this Iran thing anytime soon, unfortunately. And it’s a bigger issue for places like Asia and Europe.”

The average price of jet fuel is $3.82, down from $4 back in May. Domestic and international prices peaked the same month, with flights within the U.S. close to $100 more than they were for domestic flights last year and international flights costing more than $200 more compared to last year, according to Kayak.

Sununu said that the price for domestic flights is up 20 percent, adding that he does not “think it’s going up anymore.”

“Demand is strong. People are traveling,” he said. “And that puts money in the economy in a whole lot of different ways. So overall, it’s a very good thing economically.”

Even with high demand, the former New Hampshire governor said that the price of jet fuel has more than doubled and airlines “are eating the cost.”

“So that is up 20 percent, but it really should almost double if they passed all the cost to the consumers,” he continued. “They’re not doing that. So they’re staying competitive.”

Airlines have seen jet fuel prices soar and nearly double in some cases. United and American Airlines both estimated about $6 billion increases in fuel costs compared to last year, both 50 percent jumps from 2025, according to CNBC .

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics found in July that the price increase was driven mostly by the rising cost of fuel rather than demand, with airlines consuming 1.627 billion gallons in May, while the average price paid nearly doubled from where it was in May 2025, reaching $4.09 per gallon.

Fuel is one of the industry’s biggest operating expenses, with high costs forcing carriers to raise fares and cut flights. Spirit Airlines, after failing to receive a bailout from the Trump administration, shut down in May as a result of high fuel prices.

The U.S. has maintained a naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil is exported. Iran has kept the strait closed, seeking deals with other countries in the region, such as Oman, for routes through which oil can be exported.