NOTHING COSTS MORE THAN IT USED TO:

Airfares stay low, for better and for worse: Passengers benefit, but the industry is running on empty (Alexandra Marks, 9/28/06, The Christian Science Monitor)

[O]ther factors have held sway: the recent fall in the price of oil, a slowing economy, and the low-cost carriers' ever-growing share of the marketplace. That combination has prompted some other aviation analysts to predict that instead of rising, airfares could go into a sudden free fall.

"We've got what looks like a perfect storm coming for prices to plummet, at least in the short term," says Mr. Mitchell.