The Cheapest Airlines for Domestic Flights by State

Written by Matt Pelkey

February 17, 2025 • 4 minute read

As pandemic lockdowns eased in 2021, travel costs soared in response to the widespread urge to get away. But, according to Kayak CEO Steve Hafner, this “revenge travel effect is finally receding, and so are prices.” The price of domestic flights fell an average of 8% in the year to September in response to air traffic returning to 2019 levels.

But there are many variables to consider when trying to get the best price for a domestic flight, from the timing of your booking to the airline with which you’ll fly. To help you find the best deals for domestic flights, we have done our research to identify the most affordable airline you can fly with, depending on where you live.

What We Did

First, we created flight route combinations from each official U.S. hub airport to all the others. Next, we collected a sample of one-way flights for each route for a solo adult traveling one way in economy, with no more than one stop. Finally, we calculated the average price per mile for each airline across all routes for each airport and the average for each state. Airlines were ranked based on these figures.

Key Findings

• The cheapest airline for domestic flights from New York State is Frontier, at an average of $0.12 per mile.
• In California, the most expensive airline for domestic flights is Alaska, at an average of $0.49 per mile.
• The cheapest combination of airport + airline to take a domestic flight is flying Frontier from Seattle-Tacoma International, which costs $0.05 per mile.
• The most expensive is flying Sun Country from St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport in Pinellas County, Florida, which averages $3.77 per mile.

Frontier is America’s Cheapest Domestic Carrier — If You Watch Your Fees

We created two maps to reveal the cheapest and most expensive airlines for domestic flights from each state. For example, the cheapest domestic flights of all are when flying Frontier out of Washington — the average cost is just $0.05 per mile.

In fact, Frontier is the cheapest airline for domestic flights in 30 states. Frontier has operated as an ultra-low-cost carrier since 2014, ensuring low basic fares — although optional extras can soon inflate the cost. As former Frontier CEO David Siegel put it: “We are basically reducing the fare and then will charge for everything else the customer may want a la carte.”

American Airlines Ranked as Most Expensive Option for Domestic Flights in 19 States

American Airlines operates the most expensive flights out of 19 states (below), which is more than any other airline. Flying American from West Virginia costs an average of $0.74 per mile — the most expensive domestic flight in the country.

United Airlines is not far behind American Airlines as the most expensive domestic carrier in 17 states. United’s priciest market is Indiana, where a flight costs an average of $0.57 per mile. The airline offered a limited discount to Taylor Swift fans in April 2024, offering the first 1,900 customers flying to the Eras Tour in Miami, New Orleans and Indianapolis a 13% price reduction. However, this came after United raised its checked bag fee in February, and the company was later accused of price gouging on flights out of Florida as Hurricane Milton struck in October.

Use Our Interactive Tool to Find Your Airport’s Cheapest Domestic Airline

Explore our interactive table to find out which airline will offer better rates for domestic flights when flying out of your local airport. Click the tabs to switch between the cheapest and most expensive, use the arrows to sort the data or use the search bar to zero in on your airport of choice.

Identifying your best airline for a reasonable domestic flight price is a good start, but watch out for the additional fees they tag on extras to keep the ticket price low. And start planning early, even if you must wait for the opportune moment to book — the so-called “Goldilocks windows” of travel deals: “Not too early, not too late—just right in the middle,” according to price-tracking expert Scott Keyes. Travel tends to come with unexpected costs, so planning to keep prices down from the start is the best way to keep your expenditure from getting out of hand.

Methodology

We built a seed list of all officially designated hub (major) airports in America as defined by the Federal Aviation Administration. We then used airmilescalculator.com to create flight route combinations from each airport to all other airports and calculate distances between airports.

Next, we used the ‘Flights’ section of Tripadvisor to collect a sample of one-way flights for all flight routes with the following filters:

• One adult
• Economy
• One Way
• Non-stop or one-stop

For each airport, we calculated the average price per mile for each airline across all routes. To calculate the state data, we aggregated data for airports within each state. This allowed us to isolate the cheapest and most expensive airline on average for each state and airport as of November 2024.

Note: Delaware lacks a hub airport.