U.S. Airlines’ January 2025 Fuel Cost per Gallon up 4.2% from December 2024; Aviation Fuel Consumption down 0.6% from Pre-Pandemic January 2020
BTS 12-25
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. All costs are in current dollars.
The Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) today released U.S. airlines’ January 2025 fuel cost and consumption numbers indicating U.S. scheduled service airlines used 1.453 billion gallons of fuel, 8.9% less fuel than in December 2024 (1.594 billion gallons) and 0.6% less than in pre-pandemic January 2020. The cost per gallon of fuel in January 2025 ($2.42) was up 10 cents (4.2%) from December 2024 ($2.32) and up $0.44 (22.2%) from January 2020. Total January 2025 fuel expenditure ($3.52B) was down 5.1% from December 2024 ($3.71B) and up 21.5% from pre-pandemic January 2020.
Year-over-year changes in fuel consumption and cost for January 2025 includes a 0.2% increase in domestic fuel consumption, a 10.4% decrease in domestic fuel cost, and a 10.6% decrease in cost per gallon. Domestic fuel consumption decreased 9.8% from December 2024 to January 2025, while decreasing 2.4% from January 2020. Increased fuel consumption reflects an increase in airline passenger travel over the same period.
Fuel consumed by U.S. airlines (total) scheduled service:
| January 2020 | 1.46 billion gallons |
| January 2024 | 1.46 billion gallons |
| December 2024 | 1.59 billion gallons |
| January 2025 | 1.45 billion gallons |
Fuel cost per gallon for U.S. airlines (total) scheduled service:
| January 2020 | $1.98 |
| January 2024 | $2.70 |
| December 2024 | $2.32 |
| January 2025 | $2.42 |
Total fuel cost for U.S. airlines (total) scheduled service:
| January 2020 | $2.90 billion |
| January 2024 | $3.94 billion |
| December 2024 | $3.71 billion |
| January 2025 | $3.52 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 September 2024 are available on the BTS website.
Please Note:
The information provided within BTS statistical releases may not be based on 100% of the carriers required to report. Generally, data is released per schedule if reports have been received from at least 90% of the carriers, along with data from all the major carriers. Also, within text, percent change results may not be exact due to rounding.
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