Soaring oil prices have left many Americans with higher costs and fewer options for travel amid the Iran war
Tell us: have your holiday plans changed in light of recent world events?
Chelsea Blackmore saves up every year for an annual vacation with her 58-year-old mother. This year, after landing an especially good deal, they made plans to embark on a Disney cruise from Orlando.
To keep costs low, she bought the least expensive plane tickets she could find: a $500 round trip fare on Spirit Airlines.
Soaring oil prices have leftmany Americans with higher ticket prices and fewer options for summer travel amid the economic maelstrom brought on by the war in Iran. Typically, budget airlines offer travelers like Blackmore base-fare tickets that can make travel more affordable during financially unstable times.
But last Saturday, Blackmore opened up the airline’s app and was faced with a pop-up message announcing Spirit was shutting down operations and her flight was cancelled.
“I cried for about five hours trying to search for new flights,” said Blackmore, 35, a photographer and travel agent based in Massachusetts.
Travel experts say the demise of Spirit is just a harbinger of the chaos higher energy prices will bring this summer. From drivers to flyers, all travelers are expected to feel the squeeze.
“Spirit is, in many ways, emblematic of what most Americans are feeling right now – which is a real gut punch around increasing energy costs and gas prices in particular,” said Lindsay Owens, the executive director of Groundwork Collaborative, a left-leaning economic thinktank. “We’re all Spirit Airlines, when it comes to feeling really distressed and worried about high gas prices.”
US oil prices have jumped more than 30% since the closing of the strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world’s oil and gas products typically pass through, at the start of the war. Prices at the pump have reached highs not seen since 2022, when the Russia-Ukraine war crippled the global supply of oil. The current national average gas price is $4.56 a gallon, more than $1 a gallon more expensive than last year. In some states, average gas prices have breached $6 a gallon.
Source: Drudge Report
