U.S. Airlines’ April 2024 Fuel Cost per Gallon down 0.6% from March 2024; Aviation Fuel Consumption Up 5.4% from Pre-Pandemic April 2019
This release is published on a fixed schedule as required by the Office of Management and Budget, and statistics in this release may be revised when inputs to the statistics are corrected or updated. Data on the program page of this website are the most up-to-date and complete.
The Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) today released U.S. airlines’ April 2024 fuel cost and consumption numbers indicating U.S. scheduled service airlines used 1.567 billion gallons of fuel, 2.2% less fuel than in March 2024 (1.602 billion gallons) and 5.4% more than in pre-pandemic April 2019. The cost per gallon of fuel in April 2024 ($2.75) was down 2 cents (0.6%) from March 2024 ($2.77) and up $0.69 (33.8%) from April 2019. Total April 2024 fuel expenditure ($4.31B) was down 2.8% from March 2024 ($4.43B) and up 41.0% from pre-pandemic April 2019.
Year-over-year changes in fuel consumption and cost for April 2024 include a 4.7% increase in domestic fuel consumption, an 8.5% increase in domestic fuel cost, and a 3.6% increase in cost per gallon. Domestic fuel consumption decreased 2.6% from March 2024 to April 2024, while increasing 5.2% from April 2019. Increased fuel consumption reflects an increase in airline passenger travel over the same period.
Fuel consumed by U.S. airlines (total) scheduled service:
| April 2019 | 1.49 billion gallons |
| April 2023 | 1.48 billion gallons |
| March 2024 | 1.60 billion gallons |
| April 2024 | 1.57 billion gallons |
Fuel cost per gallon for U.S. airlines (total) scheduled service:
| April 2019 | $2.06 |
| April 2023 | $2.66 |
| March 2024 | $2.77 |
| April 2024 | $2.75 |
Total fuel cost for U.S. airlines (total) scheduled service:
| April 2019 | $3.06 billion |
| April 2023 | $3.94 billion |
| March 2024 | $4.43 billion |
| April 2024 | $4.31 billion |
Fuel Cost and Consumption data from January 2000 to the present can be found at https://www.transtats.bts.gov/fuel.asp. Summaries by month are also available.
Airline fuel costs may be affected by hedging, contracts that allow airlines to limit exposure to future price changes. None of the cost numbers are adjusted for inflation. The month-to-month numbers are not seasonally adjusted.
Individual airline numbers through December 2023 are available on the BTS website.
Please Note:
The information provided within BTS statistical releases may not be based on 100% of reporting carriers. Generally, data are released per schedule if reports have been received from at least 90% of the carriers, along with data from all the major carriers. Regarding this release, the following carrier remain pending: Swift Air, LLC (09Q) Also, within text, percent change results may not be exact due to rounding.
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