Source: US DOT
The Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) today released U.S. airlines’ September 2023 fuel cost and consumption numbers indicating U.S. scheduled service airlines used 1.518 billion gallons of fuel, 9.2% less fuel than in August 2023 (1.672 billion gallons) and 2.8% more than in pre-pandemic September 2019. The cost per gallon of fuel in September 2023 ($3.14) was up 32 cents (11.4%) from August 2023 ($2.82) and up $1.19 (60.6%) from September 2019. Total September 2023 fuel expenditure ($4.77B) was up 1.1% from August 2023 ($4.72B) and up 65.1% from pre-pandemic September 2019.
Year-over-year changes in fuel consumption and cost for September 2023 include 6.0% increase in domestic fuel consumption, 4.2% decrease in domestic fuel cost, and 9.6% decrease in cost per gallon. Domestic fuel consumption decreased 9.2% from August 2023 to September 2023, while increasing 4.2% from September 2019. Increased fuel consumption reflects an increase in airline passenger travel over the same period.
Fuel consumed by U.S. airlines (total) scheduled service:
| September 2019: | 1.48 billion gallons |
| September 2022: | 1.40 billion gallons |
| August 2023: | 1.67 billion gallons |
| September 2023: | 1.52 billion gallons |
Fuel cost per gallon for U.S. airlines (total) scheduled service:
| September 2019: | $1.96 |
| September 2022: | $3.49 |
| August 2023: | $2.82 |
| September 2023: | $3.14 |
Total fuel cost for U.S. airlines (total) scheduled service:
| September 2019: | $2.89 billion |
| September 2022: | $4.89 billion |
| August 2023: | $4.72 billion |
| September 2023: | $4.77 billion |
Fuel Cost and Consumption data from January 2000 to the present can be found at https://transtats.bts.gov/fuel.asp. Summaries by month are also available.