Photo: Ales Utouka/picture alliance / CHROMORANGE
Photo: Ales Utouka/picture alliance / CHROMORANGE

Ideas

Why This Summer’s Airfares Are Unaffordable—And Unpredictable

The normal patterns of price changes may no longer hold true.

First published in The Atlantic on June 9, 2026.

by Henry Grabar, The Atlantic
June 11, 2026 | reading time: 6 Min.

The casual air traveler has never had so much information at his fingertips. He sits before a battleship-worthy console of maps, prices, dates, and times; orders up grids that plot one variable against another. He is monitoring the situation. He is in conversation with his wallet, but also with his future self: Will he want to take the red-eye and leave his bags at the hotel all day? Will he want to leave the house at 4 a.m.? What’s so great about Iceland, anyway?

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