Source: US DOT
The Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) today released U.S. airlines’ August 2023 fuel cost and consumption numbers indicating U.S. scheduled service airlines used 1.672 billion gallons of fuel, 0.3% less fuel than in July 2023 (1.678 billion gallons) and 1.2% more than in pre-pandemic August 2019. The cost per gallon of fuel in August 2023 ($2.82) was up 34 cents (13.8%) from July 2023 ($2.48) and up $0.88 (45.2%) from August 2019. Total August 2023 fuel expenditure ($4.72B) was up 13.5% from July 2023 ($4.16B) and up 46.9% from pre-pandemic August 2019.
Year-over-year changes in fuel consumption and cost for August 2023 include 9.7% increase in domestic fuel consumption, 9.7% decrease in domestic fuel cost, and 17.7% decrease in cost per gallon. Domestic fuel consumption decreased 0.3% from July 2023 to August 2023, while increasing 1.4% from August 2019. Increased fuel consumption reflects an increase in airline passenger travel over the same period.
Fuel consumed by U.S. airlines (total) scheduled service:
| August 2019 | 1.65 billion gallons |
| August 2022 | 1.50 billion gallons |
| July 2023 | 1.68 billion gallons |
| August 2023 | 1.67 billion gallons |
Fuel cost per gallon for U.S. airlines (total) scheduled service:
| August 2019 | $1.94 |
| August 2022 | $3.47 |
| July 2023 | $2.48 |
| August 2023 | $2.82 |
Total fuel cost for U.S. airlines (total) scheduled service:
| August 2019 | $3.21 billion |
| August 2022 | $5.22 billion |
| July 2023 | $4.16 billion |
| August 2023 | $4.72 billion |