Hickory Global Partners President & Managing Partner Chris Dane appeared on Scripps News to comment on the impact of rising fuel costs on airfare pricing, as oil prices remained sharply elevated amid the US-Iran conflict.
The Scripps News segment examined how quickly American consumers could expect relief at the pump following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran. With the national average price of gasoline reaching $4.16 per gallon—and oil prices still roughly 30-40% above pre-war levels despite a significant drop on the ceasefire news—the segment also featured an expert breaking down the timeline for gas price declines. But fuel costs don't just affect drivers. The surge in jet fuel prices has put upward pressure on airfare as well, and Scripps brought Dane in to address that side of the equation.
With more than 50 years of experience in the corporate travel industry, Dane offered a measured assessment:
The question of how the conflict will impact airfare comes as airports have already been dealing with the fallout of other political disruptions. A partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security left airports operating with reduced TSA staffing, and last year's record-setting 43-day full government shutdown forced emergency flight reductions across 40 major airports—a crisis Dane also covered as a guest on Fox and Yahoo Finance.
Periods of volatility like these underscore the value of the work Hickory Global Partners does on behalf of its members.
As one of the industry's leading global alliances for corporate travel agencies, corporate travel departments, and corporations, Hickory leverages collective buying power to negotiate preferred rates across more than 60 airlines, 50,000 hotel properties, and 8,000 ground transportation locations worldwide—rates that individual organizations would struggle to secure on their own, and that matter most when markets are unpredictable.
The full segment is available on Scripps News here.