Airfare and gas prices are seeing the highest increase, latest inflation report shows

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — A new report on the Consumer Price Index came out on Tuesday. It showed that gas prices have gone up 27% and airfare has gone up 26% since January of last year.

A few weeks ago, some parts of Florida had gas prices as low as $2.99 per gallon. According to the American Automobile Association, the average price of gas in Florida is now back up to $3.41.

A West Palm Beach driver told us, “You get tired of it.”

“They seem to keep going up and down,” said a different driver on Wednesday.

According to a report on inflation that came out on Tuesday from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, gas prices have gone up 27% since January of last year.

“If you will, it’s kind of a shoulder season. Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for Gas Buddy, said, “Refineries are getting ready for maintenance before the switch to summer gasoline.”

De Haan us that prices are probably going to go up again before they go down.

“Gas prices will still be high this summer, but I hope we won’t see $5 like we did last year, even though $4 is still a possibility,” De Haan said.

The most recent report on inflation also showed that the price of an airline ticket has gone up by 26%.

Carl Gould, president of 7 Stage Advisors and a business analyst, said that airlines are still trying to figure it out.

Gould calls it a “pandemic hangover” that keeps getting worse and better.

“They had a lot of trouble during the pandemic. They let some people go and gave others the chance to retire early. They had to cut some of the bigger salaries. Now, they don’t have enough pilots,” said Gould. “There are fewer of them.”

For now, this is another new normal that is making Floridians have to change their budgets.

“When it’s five cents more per gallon, it’s hard for people who work week to week to figure things out. A driver in West Palm Beach said, “That’s a lot.”