Airlines for America CEO Chris Sununu on Sunday said the price of plane tickets will stabilize amid high jet fuel prices that have spiked in the six months since the Iran war began. "People realize that demand is high," Sununu told "The…
Page A2From§Eachthe sunrise edition — 31 August 2026
Airline CEO promises stable ticket prices as government warns Americans away from a popular destination.
As it ran on the front
The Airlines for America CEO has stated, clearly, that plane ticket prices will stabilize. This reporter takes that statement at face value, because trade group executives do not typically make predictions about their own industry's pricing without — well, without a reason to say it out loud right now, which, fair question, why now.
At the same time, and this reporter wants to stress this is a separate story, the government has warned Americans against travel plans to a popular destination over terrorism concerns. Two different subjects, no connection implied. Prices stabilizing is a pricing story. A terrorism warning is a security story. It would be irresponsible to suggest that a warning telling people not to go somewhere might, in any way, affect the price of getting there, or that an industry facing softer demand might describe that softening as prices 'stabilizing' rather than falling, that's not — actually, that is exactly the kind of thing 'stabilizing' can mean, isn't it. It can mean prices went up. It can also mean prices stopped falling. Those are different sentences and the industry gets to pick which one it sounds like.…
…(cont) This reporter isn't in a position to say which one this is. What this reporter can say is that the timing is coincidental, the two statements ran the same week, and coincidental timing is not evidence of anything except a calendar. The flying public can decide for itself whether it wants to book a ticket to a destination its own government just told it to reconsider, at a price an airline executive just promised would hold steady. Both of those things can be true. It is possible neither one is good news, and it is also possible this reporter has said too much already.
“They tell you the prices are stabilizing right after telling you not to go — that's not stabilizing, that's just fewer people bothering to buy the ticket. Read the two stories together and the math does itself.”
The receipts
The State Department's Level 3 advisory warns of terrorism and unrest in Israel, with some areas near Gaza carrying a Level 4 "Do Not Travel" warning.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.