As we brace for another major hurricane, we’re keeping a close eye on Irma and her path, as well as her impact on travel. Here are a few insights we’ve seen from digging into our data.
Flight searches from Southern Florida (MIA, FLL, and ORL) between Sunday, September 3 and Monday, September 4 increased by 62%. On Tuesday, September 5 flight searches out of Southern Florida increased by 495%. We started to see them slowly decrease the rest of the week, but they continued to remain significantly higher than the week before.
As far as prices go – fares spiked for those looking to make a quick departure ahead of the category 5 hurricane. While prices hovered around the mid $300’s last week for those looking to get out of the area quickly (0-1 days before departure), those prices increased by more than 25% (as of 9/5) for those looking to get out of the area in less than one day.
On Wednesday, prices dropped by -34% from the day before (Sept.5). We’ve seen this trend continue throughout the week with flight prices out of Southern Florida -24% lower this week overall than the week before the storm as airlines moved to cap prices while accommodating as many passengers as possible. Remember, airline pricing is based on supply and demand; we often see prices skyrocket as seats begin to fill.
And it wasn’t just flights. Average daily car rental searches the days leading up to Irma (Sept. 4 to Sept. 6) increased by +696% compared to the week before (Aug.28 to Sept.3).
A few tips for travelers in advance of Irma:
- Stay in close contact with your airlines and airports before heading to catch your flight as there are already many cancellations. Both Miami airport: @iflymia and Fort Lauderdale: @FLLFlyer airports are posting updates via Twitter.
- Review your travel insurance and/or coverage policies. You may have coverage from a credit card and not even realize it.
- Many airlines including JetBlue, United, American, Delta (among others) are willing to waive change fees through September 11 – 12; check with your carrier.
- JetBlue also just announced it is capping direct flight ticket prices out of Florida at $99 ahead of Hurricane Irma.
- For flight updates – check our Flight Tracker.
Most importantly, stay safe, everyone.
Methodology
KAYAK looked at all domestic, round trip flight prices and searches based on data collated on Sept. 6, 2017 from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Orlando with search dates of August 1, 2017 to September 5, 2017. For price data, KAYAK looked at prices with booking dates 0-1 day before departure. For car searches, KAYAK pulled data (with the same dates) from car rental locations across the entire state of Florida. All searches were pulled from KAYAK’s internal database looking at median prices. Prices may vary.
Header Image Attribution: Drew McArthur/Shutterstock.com
