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Some Flights Are as Low as $29 Right Now as Airlines Rush to Fill Seats Before the End of the Year There are a record 260 million seats to fill by the end of the fourth quarter.

By Sam Silverman

Key Takeaways

  • Airlines have more seats to fill due to increased flight capacity.
  • Flight prices are down by 13% from last year.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Flights are getting a whole lot cheaper as airlines rush to fill empty seats by the end of the year.

Airlines have a record 260 million seats to fill by the end of the fourth quarter, which is up by nearly 8% from last year, according to information obtained by CNBC from aviation data firm Cirium.

To hit their goal, some airlines are offering flights at low fares, including Southwest Airlines, which offered a sale of one-way fights from Atlanta to Nashville, Los Angeles to Las Vegas, and more in the early morning and late evening starting at $29.

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Southwest's Chief Commercial Officer, Ryan Green, told reporters at the Skift Aviation Forum that the airline is discounting flights and offering sales "a bit more than normal" due to the increased flight capacity, and thus the need to fill more seats, per CNBC.

From September to October 2023, airline capacity increased by 2.1%, according to OAG's Airline Frequency and Capacity Trend Statistics Report, which is up 0.8% from 2019.

Apart from Southwest, Spirit is also offering flights for just $48.73, per CNBC.

Meanwhile, the cost of airline tickets is down by 13% from September 2022, according to NerdWallet's Travel Inflation Report for November 2023.

RELATED: Partial to the Window Seat? One Major U.S. Airline Has Good News for You.

In addition to Southwest, JetBlue, Spirit, and Frontier Airlines have reported fare drops between 12% to 32% compared to the previous year.

Sam Silverman

Content Strategy Editor

Sam Silverman is a content strategy editor at Entrepreneur Media. She specializes in search engine optimization (SEO), and her work can be found in The US Sun, Nicki Swift, In Touch Weekly, Life & Style and Health. She writes for our news team with a focus on investigating scandals. Her coverage and expertise span from business news, entrepreneurship, technology, and true crime, to the latest in entertainment and TV news. Sam is a graduate of Lehigh University and currently resides in NYC. 

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