The Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) Nov. 2 released U.S. airlines’ September fuel cost and consumption numbers indicating U.S. scheduled service airlines used 1.4 billion gallons of fuel, 6.7% less fuel than in August 2022 (1.50 billion gallons) and 5.4% less than in pre-pandemic September 2019.
The cost per gallon of fuel in September 2022 ($3.49) was up 2 cents (0.6%) from August 2022 ($3.47) and up $1.53 (78.1%) from September 2019. Total September 2022 fuel expenditure ($4.89B) was down 6.3% from August 2022 ($5.22B) and up 69.2% from pre-pandemic September 2019.
Year-over-year increases in fuel consumption and cost for September include 7.0% in domestic fuel consumption, 86.3% in domestic fuel cost, and 74.2% in cost per gallon. Domestic fuel consumption decreased 6.1% from August to September in 2022, while also decreasing 1.7% from September 2019.
Fuel consumed by U.S. airlines (total) scheduled service:
September 2019: 1.48 billion gallons
September 2021: 1.22 billion gallons
August 2022: 1.50 billion gallons
September 2022: 1.40 billion gallons
Fuel cost per gallon for U.S. airlines (total) scheduled service:
September 2019: $1.96
September 2021: $1.99
August 2022: $3.47
September 2022: $3.49
Total fuel cost for U.S. airlines (total) scheduled service:
September 2019: $2.89 billion
September 2021: $2.43 billion
August 2022: $5.22 billion
September 2022: $4.89 billion